


Fearless 2

by i_am_a_super_fangirl



Series: Fearless [2]
Category: IT(1990), IT(2017) - Fandom, Stranger Things (2016)
Genre: Angst, Blood and Gore, Challenges, Connections, Crossover, Depressing, F/M, Fluff (enjoy it while it lasts), Friendship, If you want to be happy...., It took so long to write this, Love, Manipulation, Mileven, NO TAKE BACKS, Pennywise is a savage in this one, Sequel, Sexual Humor, Swearing, This has billverly but I ship benverly, Violence, good luck, if you want this to make sense, read the first one, timeline change
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-24
Updated: 2018-03-16
Packaged: 2019-03-08 19:47:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 39
Words: 54,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13465290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_am_a_super_fangirl/pseuds/i_am_a_super_fangirl
Summary: You thought moving to Hawkins, Indiana would equal safety from the horrors of Derry. But moving to Hawkins only amplified the problem. The threat of Pennywise didn’t get smaller, it got bigger and it’s iut to get you and your friends. There’s also the looming threat of missing your boyfriend way too fucking much.





	1. A New Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Before you start, this book is in two parts. By that, I mean there’s going to be a break halfway through the story. This is simply because I need time to edit and write the second half of this story. The only reason I’m releasing it now is for you guys. Enjoy the sequel!

(Y/N) POV

“Is this all of the luggage?” Beverly’s aunt asked as we put our luggage inside the old house. Bev and I looked at each other for confirmation, before nodding.

“Thanks again aunt Becky,” Bev smiled at her relative. The ride from Derry to Hawkins was a lengthy one, but worth it if I got to get away from that place. The only thing I missed was the losers.

Especially Richie.

He didn’t come out of my mind during the whole ride. I missed him more than anything in the world. But for once I had to put myself in front of somebody else. Staying in Derry would just be too much for me. 

“You miss him don’t you?” Bev said, snapping me out of my thoughts.

“Am I really making it that obvious?” I asked, smiling. 

“Definitely,” she smirked. I chuckled and took her hand in mine as we walked upstairs.

“Is it okay for you two to share a room?” Bev’s aunt asked.

“That’s more than okay,” I smiled. I’ve always wanted to share a room with my best friend, since it was rather lonely in my house. 

“Oh and (Y/N)? You can call me Aunt Becky if you’d like.” She gave me a heart-warming smile. This was really unexpected. I’ve never called someone by a familial relationship before, and she wasn’t even related to me.

“Thank you.... Aunt Becky.” I said slowly. She nodded and went back downstairs to her sister. I only had a small glimpse of her, but she looked like she was in some sort of frozen state. She kept mumbling things while her eyes were focused in one direction. I learned her name was Terry and something to her daughter Jane? I’m not entirely sure so I shrugged it off.

“So my aunt told me we’d be enrolled at Hawkins High School.” Bev said, sitting down on her separate bed.

“Wow, what a creative name!” I exclaimed sarcastically, causing Bev to chuckle. 

“At least we won’t be called anything there.” She muttered.

“Don’t worry Bev. If there’s another Gretta Keene there, I’ll find another quarry to push her off of.” I crossed my arms, and slumped onto my bed.

“Do you think we’ll make new friends?” She asked.

“Part of me doesn’t really want to make new friends,” I mumbled. Bev looked at me with remorse as she walked towards me.

“Look, I know doing this was hard. I didn’t want to leave either, but we had no other choice.” She rubbed my back, making me smile and rest my head on her shoulder. “How about we call Richie?” She suggested. I didn’t think twice and raced downstairs to the phone, eager to call him. Aunt Becky jumped up in surprise at my sudden outburst.

“Calm down (Y/N)!” She chuckled softly, while resting her hand on her chest in surprise.

“Sorry,” I apologized half-assly. I quickly dialed Richie’s number and waited for him to pick up.

(Richie’s POV)

Everything felt different ever since (Y/N) and Beverly left. I told less jokes because I’d usually have (Y/N) to back me up if everyone else was just annoyed. God, I missed her. She never left my mind even before she went away. The losers came over to my house after her and Beverly left to hang out, since my parents weren’t home. They’re never home anyway, though. Eddie was stroking the ‘V’ on his cast, remembering (Y/N) put it there. Ben and Bill were talking about Beverly, considering they were the most fond of her. Stan was giving Mike a tour of my house, since he’s never been there. And me? I was just twiddling my fingers, thinking about (Y/N). 

Then the phone rang.

No one was getting up, so I walked my way to the device. 

“My parents aren’t home.” I said into the phone, clearly annoyed. Right now, I just wanted to be with my thoughts. I don’t need the distraction from some pers-.

“Richie?” A voice I knew all too well said over the phone.

“(Y/N)!” I practically screamed, causing the rest of the group to turn their attention to me. I didn’t realize how much I missed her voice until now and it’s only been a few hours. The rest of the group practically sprinted over to where I was, almost tackling me to the ground. Eddie snatched the phone out of my hand so quickly, I didn’t even notice it was gone before he started talking.

“(Y/N)! It’s me Eddie Kaspbrak, one of your best friends.” Eddie almost shouted into the phone, as if it didn’t work. Ben snatched the phone from Eddie, even though he wasn’t finished talking.

“(Y/N), is Beverly there too?” He asked. 

“Yea, is she right next t-t-to you?” Bill added. 

“No shit, guys. Of course Beverly is with her.” Stan rolled his eyes. I grew frustrated at all them, as they continued to steal the phone away from each other.

“Shut the fuck up!” I snapped, causing everyone to quiet down.

“I don’t know if you guys know this, but (Y/N) is my girlfriend.” I glared at them.

“When did we agree to that?” I heard (Y/N) say over the phone. I ignored her and kept talking.

“So I would like to speak with her without you fuckers jumping at her over the phone!” I crossed my arms. “Once I am done, she’ll answer all of your stupid questions.” The boys remained silent for one second, processing what I just said. Eventually they all gave in and went back to doing whatever. I picked up the phone from the counter and pressed it to my face.

“Ok, I’m back now.” I smiled.

“First of all, I did want to talk to the rest of them first.” She said.

“What why?” I asked.

“If I spoke to them first, I’d have more time to speak with you dipshit.” She said matter-of-factly. Damnit, she was smart. I would get to talk to her more if I let them talk first. 

“I’m such an idiot.”

“Oh definitely,” she laughed. I felt blood rush up to my cheek as I heard her laughter through the phone.

“What’s second of all?” I questioned.

“When did we start calling each other boyfriend and girlfriend?”

“Oh well uh- I just thought since we... y’know, that we would be-umm.” I stammered, really not knowing what to say.

“Oh god, Richie. Calm the fuck down, I’m ok with it.”

I let out a sigh of relief. “Oh thank god.” I wiped away fake sweat, even though I knew she wouldn’t see it. “So, when can you come and visit?” I immediately asked.

“As much as I’d like to hop on the next bus to Derry, I just got here.” She sighed. “I’m also being enrolled at school immediately, so it will be awhile.” My jaw clenched when I realized she’d be going to school.

With other boys there.

There’s no doubt that boys will try to hit on her. I mean, she’s like the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen. 

“Can’t you be homeschooled?” I asked.

“You jealous, Tozier?” I could feel her grinning on the other side of the phone.

“Maybe,” I muttered. “I just don’t want anyone to steal you.”

“Chill out weirdo, if anyone tried to hit on me I’ll hit them.”

I relaxed a little bit, knowing she would do something like that. “I really miss you,” I whispered.

“Right back atcha Tozier,” She said sincerely. There was a silence between us. A comfortable silence.

“DOES THIS MEAN YOU’RE DONE?!” I heard Eddie shout from the living room, making me groan. (Y/N) laughed through the phone.

“Give it to them, I’ll call again in the night.” She said.

“Fine,” I rolled my eyes. “WHO WANTS TO SPEAK FIRST?” I shouted, causing everyone to once again stampede to the fun.

What a bunch of losers.


	2. Sweet Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two different dreams take place.

(Y/N) POV

After talking to every single loser, I found myself insanely tired. The funniest part was the longest conversation was with Eddie not Richie. He kept telling me the diseases a town like this could bring and how he would research what he could about Hawkins so I don’t get them. Though it was funny hearing all of this, I just wanted to speak with Richie more. I didn’t realize how much I missed him after the phone call. However, I tried to think about the new school Bev and I were going to. We haven’t even seen it yet, so I didn’t know what to expect. Luckily, we got the schedule and we are almost in every class including homeroom. Our homeroom is science class with a teacher named Mr. Clarke, and as long as he wasn’t like Mr. Peters I would be fine.

“Hey (Y/N)?” Bev said in her bed next to mine, snapping me out of my thoughts. “Do you want to ride around tomorrow? To get to know the town?” She asked. That was actually a pretty good idea, plus it would help me get my mind off you-know-who.

“Sure, that be cool.” I shrugged. “I think we should go to bed then,” I suggested. I saw Bev nod in response and cover herself in her blanket. I did the same, looking over to her.

“Good night, (Y/N).” She smiled at me.

“Good night, Bev.” I smiled back, and closed my eyes.

(DREAM ON)

“Richie, I need to tell you something.” (Y/N) turned to him, looking a little nervous which Richie took notice of. They sat at on the roof of Richie’s house, after a long day of spring fun. It looked like everything was going well for the losers, even though in a few weeks little Georgie Denbrough would go missing.

“Is everything alright?” He asked, even though he knew it was a dumb question.

“Well, uh. Since you gave me this bracelet, I’ve been thinking that I need to be more open with you.” (Y/N) said slowly.

“Woah woah (Y/N), I thought we’d agree to just be friends. I don’t want to go to far.” He joked. (Y/N) looked at him with an unreadable expression, but he soon realized that it wasn’t time for a joke.

“Rich, I’m serious.” She muttered. Richie immediately went serious, considering (Y/N) didn’t call him by the nicknames they had agreed on at Christmas 1988.

“It’s about my uncle.” She sighed, ready to tell him what happened at home. “He....beats me.” She choked out. 

Richie felt numb everywhere when he heard those three words. ‘He beats her?’ Richie thought.

“I’ve been wanting to tell someone that for a long time. The only other person who knew was Beverly.” She hugged herself. “But that’s not it,” she huffed. This was overwhelming for Richie. Why would such a bad thing happen to someone like her? 

“He-um, he...did things.” Which was all (Y/N) could say. Saying these things out loud to someone else a hard thing to do, even for her. Richie on the other hand, knew what she was talking about.

“Oh my god,” he muttered. “(Y/N), I’m so sorry.” He wrapped his arms around her, just whispering comforting words in her ear. She let it happen, she felt safe in his arms.

“Can we go to the convenience? Get some 3 musketeers bars?” She smiled weakly. Richie nodded, smiling at the beautiful girl in front of him.

“Thanks Richie. And please don’t tell anyone.” She broke off the hug and sat up.

“Isn’t there something we can do?” Richie asked.

“You can take me out of the house as many times as you want.” (Y/N) stuck her hand out for Richie take which he gladly accepted. Any chance to hold her hand was like winning the lottery for Richie.

(DREAM OFF)

I could feel myself smiling in my sleep as the memory replayed in my head. It was at that moment when I knew I could trust Richie. I finally let myself drift off into deep sleep, letting the memory continue to play in my head.

(Richie’s POV)  
After the losers left, I found myself really tired. Especially since Eddie refused to leave because he wanted to continue to tell (Y/N) about the various diseases in small towns. My parents wouldn’t come home until ten like usual, so I just decided to sleep. I went to my room and cuddled into my bed letting my mind drift away from the world.

(DREAM ON)

“I can’t believe I pulled the short straw, your lucky we weren’t measuring dicks.” Richie joked, walking into the abandoned house with Bill and Eddie.

“Shut up Richie,” Eddie said cautiously walking around. “I can smell death in here.” He grimaced.

“Don’t breathe through your mouth.” Richie said, walking into a small open room.

“Why?”

“Because then you’re eating it.”

Eddie gagged our loud and took a hit from his inhaler. Richie noticed a paper sticking out from some cobwebs. He was trying to process what it said he read the paper.

“What h-happened?” Bill asked, walking over to Richie.

“It says (Y/N)’s missing.” Richie gulped, looking at the missing poster.

“She isn’t missing,” Bill tried to assure him. That didn’t help him though, he started to freak out. 

“That’s her name, that’s her face, that’s the date! THAT’S HER SHIRT, THAT’S HER HAIR!” Richie panted.

“Richie! C-calm down!” Bill tried to talk over him.

“WHAT THE FUCK?! IS THAT WHY SHE ISN’T HERE?! IS SHE MISSING?!” 

“RICHIE! This isn’t real, none of this is real. IT’s just trying to play t-t-tricks on you. (Y/N) is s-s-safe at home.” Bill said, which seemed to calm Richie down, but not entirely because of the fact her uncle is probably there too.

“Hello?” A weak voice called out. It seemed like it came from upstairs. “Help me, please!”

They all looked at each other in awe, but cautiously went up the stairs. The voice got louder as we took each step. At the top of the staircase, a girl was lying on the floor in a dusty room. They could only see half of her since the other half was blocked off. They soon realized that the girl was

“Betty?” Bill said.

“Ripson?” Richie continued.

“Help m-“ she was dragged deeper into the room, making them jump in surprise. They hesitantly walked deeper into the room, except for Eddie who heard someone whispering his name.

“Where the fuck did she go?” Richie question, trying to find where the missing girl went. 

Then the door slammed shut, trapping Eddie on the other side.

“Eddie!” Bill yelled, trying to open the door.

“Richieeeee,” a voice that sounded like (Y/N) called out. The sound came from a small room that appeared out of nowhere.

“(Y/N).” Richie said, running into the room. And the door slammed shut behind him, and all the sheets covering the room draped down.

The room was full of clowns.

“Shit,” he muttered. A coffin sat at the end of the room, which miraculously opened revealing the word 

Found.

There was also (Y/N)’s missing poster sticking onto it. Richie’s fear increased as he went closer to it. In the coffin laid a doll of (Y/N) covered in maggots with her mouth sewn shut. ‘This isn’t real’ Richie thought, and closed the coffin refusing to believe that she was gone. 

BAM!

A clown shut up from the coffin. “Beep beep Richie.” It ran towards him and-

(DREAM OFF)

I jumped up from my bed, panting from the sudden memory that played through my head. I started to remember how devastated I was when I found out she had went missing. My fear had come true, and what if IT comes back and travels to Hawkins and takes her again. I won’t be there. As a matter a fact anyone could take her in that town, even though I know how strong she is. What if it’s not enough? I began to grow anxious at all the things that could happen. What if she actually does get a disease? Jesus, I sound like Eddie. I need to calm down, she’ll be fine.  
I tried to push the thoughts to the back of my head, and closed my eyes to go back to sleep.


	3. Welcome to Hawkins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (Y/N) and Beverly meet another group a misfits.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got exams today, and I’m freaking out. Wish me luck and enjoy this chapter. I’m literally nothing like the stranger things kids, I hate science. But if Mr. Clarke was my teacher, I think I’d like it more.

(Y/N) POV

“(Y/N)!” Bev shouted, waking me up violently. I groaned and put the pillow over my head.

“Bev! I was having a good dream!” I pouted. 

“I don’t care if you were dreaming about you and Richie sucking face! We’re going out today.” She said, grabbing the pillow over my head and hitting me with it. 

“Ok. First of all, I was dreaming about Richie and I talking. Second of all, WHY DID YOU HIT ME WITH A PILLOW!” I playfully glared at her.

“I was trying to wake you up,” she chuckled. “C’mon, let’s go.”

“Give me five years, then I’ll wake up. It’ll take me another ten years to actually get out of bed, then there’s-“ I explained sarcastically until she cut me off.

“Aunt Becky gave us money to buy school supplies and extra stuff for fun.” Bev sung, making me raise an eyebrow and smirk.

“What are you waiting for Bev? An invitation? Off and onward we go into town.” I said in a weird accent, jumping out of bed and going to the bathroom to get ready. She chuckled at my stupid antics.

“You’re a dipshit, you know that?” She grinned. 

“Whatever!” I dismissed. “By the way, I was kidding about what I was dreaming about.”

“Oh really?” She raised an eyebrow. I nodded in response.

“Yep,” I put an emphasis on the ‘p’.

“What were you dreaming about then?” She crossed her arms.

“It was you and Bill sucking face!” I said before locking myself in the bathroom, knowing she would attack me.

“You little shit!” She yelled through the door, but I could still hear her laugh which made me smile.

I could get use to this.

***

“I’m going out to run some arron’s. I’ll pick you girls up at 7:00, ok.” Aunt Becky said as we removed our bikes from her car. Bev and I looked at each other in disbelief. 7:00pm? This was going to take some getting used to, considering this town didn’t have a curfew. 

“Is everything ok?” Aunt Becky asked us.

“Yea, it’s just we had a curfew for 7:00pm in Derry.” Bev explained.

“It’s just out of the normal for us,” I added. Aunt Becky nodded in response, understanding the situation. 

“That’s alright, I’m sure you will adjust.” She smiled at us. “Well, have fun, girls.” She called out riding off into the distance.

“What do you want to do first?” Bev asked.

“We could check out the school,” I suggested.

“Do you know where it is?”

I was about to say something, but realized I actually didn’t know where the school was. “Nevermind then.”

“We could ask someone?”

“That’s smart,” I patted her back, causing her to laugh.

“It’s called common sense.” She said matter-of-factly. I flipped her off and started to walk off with my bike in hand. “Whatever Bev.”

We walked around looking for someone who looked like they liked helping people. Which reminded me how hard it was finding someone who cares in Derry. I obviously didn’t know where we were going, but it was nice taking a look around town. We came across a small field in the middle of town where a older teenage couple sitting on a blanket, enjoying a picnic it seemed.

“How about we ask them?” I pointed over to the pair. Bev nodded and we made our way to them.

“Uhm, hello.” I said catching their attention.

“Can we help you guys?” The boy with a sandy brown bowl cut asked.

“We need some help getting to Hawkins high school.” Bev said.

“Oh, just go down that road over there and keep going straight, you’ll see it eventually.” The girl with fairly short curly hair said. We smiled and thanked them. 

“They seemed nice, that’s a start.” I said, walking away from them.

“There only two people.”

I shrugged, not knowing what to say. Then I almost forgot.

“Enjoy your date lovebirds!” I called out to the couple. Bev slapped me on my arm, for my behaviour.

“I want people to like us!”

“Since when have I cared about that?” I asked. Bev started thinking for a second.

“Touché,” she smirked. We made our way down the road, riding on our bikes to where the couple instructed.

***

“This place looks....nice.” I shrugged, as we arrived to the fairly nice high school. There was an elementary school right next to it, which reminded me a lot of Derry. Shit, everything reminds me of Derry.

“I guess?” Bev said, examining the school. 

“What should we do now?” I asked.

“We could ride around a little?” She suggested, making nod in response. We got back on our bikes and continued down road.

“This town is little boring.” I said.

“Would you rather have a boring town like this, or a overwhelming one like Derry?” She asked.

“Ok fine, but there has to be something in this town that-“ I cut myself off when I came across a small plaza.

With an arcade.

Guess who that reminded me of? I looked to Bev who seemed to catch on that I wanted to go there.

“I thought you wanted to get your mind off Richie?” She tilted her head.

“Well yea but I love the arcade.” I pleaded.

“I suppose,” she sighed. I squealed and hugged her dropping my bike and running over to the arcade.

“Am I supposed carry your bike?” She called out. I ran back to her and picked up my bike running back towards the arcade.

“Sorry!” I rested the bike on the side entrance and ran into the place. The bright colours immediately caught my eyes with the rows of games emphasizing how beautiful this place looked. I noticed a group of four guys and one girl arguing with an older teenager disgustingly eating chips. I shrugged them off and tried to look for the street fighter game. On the second aisle, I found the game. I smiled to myself, remembering how frustrated Richie would get when he lost a round. 

(Flashback Starts)

“Fuck!” Richie shouted hitting the game after playing it for the third time. (Y/N) chuckled at his behaviour, yet she was still annoyed that this was the only game he wanted to play.

“Do you give up now?” She asked, crossing her arms. They had made a bet that if Richie could win at least two games, (Y/N) would buy him a slushy.

“Hell no! This game is making me thirsty as fuck now.” He said, putting another quarter inside the machine. “Will you give me a kiss too?” He smirked. Keep in mind that this was a few months before the Christmas incident.

“Fuck no! Friends don’t kiss each other.” She said matter-of-factly. Richie’s happiness kind of dropped, as he knew that she wasn’t into him that kind of way.

“Is something wrong?” She asked.

“No no! Not at all! This game is just really fucking annoying.” He shrugged, trying to hide how he really felt. 

“How about this?” She sighed. “If you win one game, I’ll buy you a slushy.” Richie smiled wildly.

“Deal!” He said, before turning back to the game.

(Flashback Over) 

“Umm, excuse me?” A boy said, snapping me out of my thoughts. I noticed it was one of the boys arguing with the chips guy. He wore a red, blue and white hat, with amazingly curly hair. I turned to completely face him and he looked at me in awe.

“Oh sorry. Did you want to play the game?” I asked him. He just stood there with his mouth hung open and it was kind of freaking me out. 

“Hey dude!” I snapped my fingers in his face. “You’re kind of creeping me out.” I chuckled nervously. He finally came out of his trance and clears his throat.

“Oh uh sorry,” He said. “Just trying to play some street fighter.” He huffed, trying to sound tough. 

“Ok, tough guy.” I smirked, walking off. I saw Bev walk in who looked like she was looking for something until she found me.

“Who’s that guy?” She pointed to the boy who was now playing street fighter.

“Some kid.” I shrugged, not thinking too much of it.

“Well, are we done here?”

“Hell no! The fun has just started.” I said matter-of-factly. “How about we buy some food, then play a few games?” I suggested. 

“Fine,” she rolled her eyes. “But we need to save money for supplies.”

“Yea, Yea.” I grabbed her arm and pulled her to the counter. As we went passed the aisles, I stopped and noticed someone. He looked almost if not exactly like-

“Richie,” I whispered.

“What?” Bev asked, wondering why we stopped. I pointed her attention to ‘Richie’.

“Holy shit!” She whisper-shouted. “Is that-“

“I don’t know,” I muttered. I don’t know if this was a good thing or not. Now I would have a daily reminder of him. I don’t think I could handle that. I suddenly didn’t want to be here, concluding this wasn’t good thing. This look-a-like would just make me miss Richie more.

“Are you okay?” She asked.

“I don’t think so,” I shook my head. “Let’s just try to avoid him.” I continued walking, preventing myself from making eye contact with the boy. We made our way to the counter and ordered chicken strips and a side of fries.

“Can I also have a cherry slushy too?” I added. Bev looked at me in disbelief, knowing I rarely drink them.

“I like trying new things,” I shrugged. We sat down at the counter and waited for the food to come.

“Did you talk to Bill last night?” I started the conversation.

“Uh yea, I did.” Bev shifted uncomfortably.

“And? What did you say? What did he say? What’s your status?” I asked.

“He said he misses us, and it’s different there now that we’re gone.” She simply said.

“Don’t generalize Bev, what did he say about you specifically?” I leaned back on the chair.

“Nothing much,” she shrugged.

“If it’s something secretive between you two, you don’t have to tell me, I won’t bother you about it.”

“No, it’s not that,” she sighed. “It just feels awkward with us. We didn’t even discussed the... y’know.”

“You mean the fact that you guys sucked face?” I smirked.

“God, you’re disgusting!” She cringed, hitting me over the arm.

“Ok ok, the fact that you guys kissed.” I rephrased.

“Twice,” she mumbled.

“What?!” I practically yelled, causing some people to look at us but quickly dismissed it. “When did you kiss again?”

“After he kissed me,” she said matter-of-factly. I was completely shocked. I guess I was distracted, I didn’t see it the second time.

“Well, what’s happening with you guys now?” I asked.

“I don’t know, that’s why I said it was awkward.” 

“I can’t believe you guys kissed twice,” I grinned.

“Well how many times did you kiss Richie?” She asked.

“Three times.”

“And you’re scolding me?” She scoffed.

“We were open about our feelings,” I said over-dramatically.

“The only reason he told you was because you had him in a choke hold,” she said matter-of-factly.

“Can we agree to not speak about the whole clown thing?” I grimaced.

“Fine,” she smirked.

“Order 66! Six chicken strips with a side of fries and a cherry slushy!” The lady called out.

“That’s us,” I said, getting out of my seat and going over to where we ordered.

“That’ll be $10.00,” the lady said. Bev gave her a bill and we took our food.

“That smells really good,” Bev said sticking her face close to the meal. Part of me wanted to slam her face into it, but I decided against it since I was really hungry. We found an empty booth and I sat on one side while she sat on the other. We were about to dig in when the same group of kids walked up to us.

Including the Richie look-a-like.


	4. This is Awkward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Richie gets worried, and (Y/N) & Beverly get acquainted with the party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My exam wasn’t that bad. You probably don’t care, but I think I did well.

*Earlier in the Morning*

(Richie’s POV)

When I woke up, I immediately decided to call (Y/N). I know it makes me seem clingy, but I don’t give a fuck. She is my girlfriend after all, I have a right to be. I raced downstairs and dialled her number.

1 ring.

C’mon pick up, pick up, pick up.

2 ring.

Shouldn’t she be waking up early? No, she’s not an early riser, she could be asleep.

3 rings.

Couldn’t Bev wake her up? Why isn’t she picking up?

4 rings.

What if IT got her again? What if she’s been kidnaped? Stop Richie! There’s no possible way.

“The number you have dialled isn’t available right n-“ the phone said. I slammed the phone down.

“Fuck,” I muttered. I started to feel anxious. Why didn’t she pick up? It’s too early to go anywhere. I kept getting this sickening feeling that something happened to her. I needed to calm down, I needed help. I called the first person who came to mind.

“Hello?” The voice said over the phone.

“Eddie.”

*Back to later on in the Day*

(Y/N) POV

“Uh hi!” The same boy who came up to me spoke first. The rest of the group looked over to him, annoyed. I assumed this was his plan to talk to us. It was really hard, but I tried to avoid eye contact with ‘Richie’. It was just too hard not to. The only difference about him was the fact his hair was straighter, he was much taller, and he had no glasses.

“Hey tough guy,” I said, trying to turn my attention to the other boy. I saw his cheeks fill with red.

“Um, I felt we got off on the wrong foot.” He spoke quickly.

“You mean how you were acting like a weirdo?” I said matter-of-factly.

“I like her already,” the only girl in the group said. She had long red-coloured hair and had her arm resting on the boy next to her. He was a averaged height African-American who was looking at the curly-haired boy in disbelief. “I’m max,” she stuck her hand out for me and Bev to shake.

“(Y/N),” I smiled and shook her hand.

“Beverly,” Bev said, copying my actions.

“I’m Dustin,” the boy who’s name was Dustin cut in. “This is Lucas, Max, Will and Mike.” He went down the line. The Richie look-a-like’s name is Mike? Not only does he have the face of my boyfriend, but he also has the name of one of my close friends? Fucking great! This is horrible.

“Are you two new here?” ‘Will’ asked. He was the shortest out of all of them. He had sandy brown hair in style of a bowlcut. He reminded me of the teenage boy I met earlier today.

“Yea, we moved here from Derry yesterday.” Bev said.

“Derry? Never heard of it.” Lucas raised an eyebrow.

“I’ve never heard of Hawkins either,” I leaned back in my seat.

“Touché,” he smirked.

“So, why did you move here?” Mike asked. Bev and I gave each other that look. 

“Long story,” we said in unison. They all looked confused at our answer.

“You really don’t want to know,” Bev said. Telling them ‘we killed a demon clown and got rid of our abusive relatives’ wasn’t a good first impression.

“Well anyway,” Dustin spoke up. “Since you’re new, we think you should hang with us. I mean we’re a pretty cool group of people.” The rest of the group groaned and rolled their eyes.

“What he means to say,” Lucas glared at him. “-is that since your new, we’d thought you’d want some people to hang with.” He rephrased.

“That’s basically what I just said!” Dustin rolled his eyes.

“Umm, no it’s not!” Lucas said matter-of-factly. Their argument started to heat up as we watched them. 

“Guys!” Mike shouted, causing both them to stop fighting. “I’m sorry about them,” he sighed.

“No, it’s fine. You two remind me of two other people.” Bev chuckled. I knew immediately she was talking about Richie and Eddie, considering I would always talk about their constant arguments with each other. I’m sorry, but Mike looks way too much like Richie. But Mike’s personality is drastically different than Richie’s. He seems more like Bill to me if I’m being honest. So this kid has the face of Richie, the name of Mike, and the personality of Bill? So much for getting my mind off them. Although I didn’t want to forget the losers, I didn’t want a constant reminder of those I’ve left.

“Can I just say something?” I spoke out, causing all the attention to be turned to me. “This is kind of freaking me out.”

“I’m really sorry about Dustin,” Will smiled awkwardly.

“Will!” Dustin looked at him in disbelief.

“He’s right,” Max shrugged. Dustin threw his hands up defeat, before flipping them off.

“No no, not Dustin.” I assured them. “I’m talking about you,” I pointed to Mike.

“Me? What did I do?” He asked.

“Nothing, I have nothing against you. It’s just-“ Why is this so hard to say?

“You remind her of her boyfriend,” Bev spoke up, already knowing what I was going to say.

“Bev! You couldn’t let me say that?” I glared at her, which she just shrugged to in response.

“Boyfriend?” Dustin’s voice cracked, causing me to look at him in confusion. Lucas just started to laugh out loud.

“Sorry man,” he patted Dustin’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry, I guess?” Mike said, though it came out like a question rather than a response.

“Nah it’s not your fault,” I shrugged. “But if I accidentally call you Richie just correct me.” He nodded in response.

“Noted.” He said. “So does that mean you’ll join us?”

I looked to Bev who just shrugged and mouth “sure.”

“Ok,” I nodded. Everyone in the group smiled.

“Oh! We’re not very popular by the way,” Max spoke up.

“We’re actually the complete opposite,” Lucas muttered.

“Don’t worry about that,” Bev waved them off. “We weren’t very popular back in Derry either.”

“You obviously attracted someone though,” Dustin pointed to me. 

“We were part of a club which her, I and him were in.” I said.

“Like a school club?” Will asked.

“No just a club between each of us were in.”

“We called ourselves the losers club,” Bev smiled.

“We didn’t come up with the name,” I shook my head. “There were eight of us, including Bev and I.”

“Well technically there’s six of us, but-“ Max started, but she was cut off by the rest of the group. They awkwardly turned to us.

“Don’t worry,” I chuckled. “Confidential shit, I get it.”

“You can relate?” Lucas asked.

“The reason we came here is confidential,” Bev smirked.

“Are you guys on a mission?” Dustin smiled wildly.

“Um? What the fuck, no.” I furrowed my eyebrows at him.

“Oh,” he frowned. We all stayed silent for a moment, before Mike spoke up.

“Can we join you? I’m kinda hungry.” He pointed toward the food, which was probably cold by now.

“Ah, I see, you guys came over here to take our food.” I raised an eyebrow. “Well, I feel offended, I... probably would’ve done the same thing.”

The whole group burst into laughter and they took a seat inside our booth.

*Back to Richie*

(Eddie’s POV)

“Can you please calm down Richie? She probably went with Beverly to look around or some shit.” I rolled my eyes, done with his bullshit. Richie was pacing like a madman, thinking of out of this world ways that something happened to (Y/N).

“She couldn’t have called?” He pointed out.

“Hate to break it to you Rich, but her whole world doesn’t revolve around you.” I crossed my arms, leaning my back against the wall next to the TV. I didn’t want to sit on the couch, because I have no idea where it’s been and with Richie anything is possible.

“So? I don’t know if you’ve noticed but she’s my boyfriend.” He said. “How long has it been since she left?”

I checked my watch. “Two days.” Richie looked at me in disbelief.

“Only?” He asked, surprised at my answer.

“Y’know, if I were (Y/N), I wouldn’t like you worrying about me like this.” I said matter-of-factly.

“Edward, you can’t be (Y/N). You’re not pretty enough,” he tilted his head. I flipped him off and walked over to him.

“First of all, don’t call me that.” I glared at him. “And second, I’m trying to say that you can’t have your mind on her every second of the day.” Richie sighed, probably contemplating what I had said.

“If a boy tries to hit on her, you know that she’ll punch them into oblivion. We also killed IT, so she won’t get kidnaped. Stop worrying! She’s literally five times more of a badass than you are,” I crossed my arms. “We’ll just call her in the afternoon.”

Richie finally stopped pacing and sighed. “Ok, fine.” He slumped on the couch. “Thanks, Eds.” I wanted to correct him, but I decided against it.

“How about we call the others and go to get some ice cream?” I suggested. He nodded and we called the others to meet us at the ice cream parlour.


	5. Was It Real?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (Y/N) finally gets her own scare.

(Y/N) POV

“(Y/N)?” I heard Bev sing my name.

“Hmm?” I groaned, half-awake in bed.

“We have school today,” she said softly.

“Oh, ok.”

“So, WAKE THE HELL UP!” She screamed in my ear, causing me to jump up in surprise.

“C’mon! I would’ve woken up if you had still talk to me softly.” I started rubbing my ear. “Besides, I’m actually looking forward to school.” The group we met yesterday made want to go to school. They seemed really cool, and they were obviously nice since they let us hang with them.

“Ok, good. Aunt Becky said she’s dropping us off in thirty minutes.” Bev said, before walking to her bed to remake it.

“What time is it now?” I asked, groggily getting out of bed.

Bev glanced at the clock. “7:24,” she stated. I nodded and picked out high waisted washed out jeans that rolled up at the bottom, and an oversized navy blue shirt. “I’m going to go take a shower.” I called out, walking into the bathroom.

“Ok!” She called back. I closed the door behind me and rested my clothes on top of the toilet. I walked over to the sink and pulled out my toothbrush. I was about to run the tap when-

Sssssss!

I turned around, wondering where the slithering noise was coming from. But it stopped. I assumed it was just my imagination, so I turned around an-

SSSSSSS!

I snapped my head back as the slithering noise got louder. It sounded like it was coming from 

The wall?

I walked closer to it, pressing my ear to the grainy wall. It was coming from there. How could it come from the wall? I soon remembered that me and Bev’s room was on the other side. I let out a sigh of relief.

“Real funny, Be-“

BAM!

A long vine crashed through the wall and I jumped back in surprise. I ran to the door, but the vine caught my hand, dragging me towards it. I banged on it in hopes it would let go, but it’s grip was too strong.

BAM!

Another vine crashed through the wall grabbing my other hand, pinning my back against the wall. The vines were slimy and looked like over grown worms, by the way they moved. I had no idea what to do. I tried kicking out my legs vigorously, but it was no use.

BAM!

Another vine slithered around my neck very slowly, before shutting tight and basically choking me. I started gasping for air.

Then the whole wall in front of me crashed down.

A road was revealed. A road on Derry? Then I saw Richie walking is bike down the middle of it. I was still held up against the wall, so I couldn’t do anything. All of a sudden, a car drove up and stopped in front of him.

My uncle’s car and he came walking out of it. With a switchblade in his hand.

“No! No no no no no!” I yelled, now struggling to break free from these vines. Richie dropped his bike and started to run, but my uncle was too fast for him and grabbed him by the collar of his Hawaiian shirt.

“Stop! Phil! Stop!” I screamed, but it didn’t look like either of them could hear me. Richie had fear prominent on his face as my uncle held the blade to his neck. He took the back of Richie’s hair and slammed his head on the hood of his car, making Richie groan and cringe at the sudden rush of pain. 

“RICHIE!” I shouted and continued to struggle. I was helpless, all I could do was watch, but I couldn’t just watch. I needed to get there. My uncle went down to Richie’s ear to whisper something, and for some reason I could hear it perfectly.

“I know you’ve been doing things with my niece, and I wanted to call you out on it. She is mine and only mine to have and I’m just here to make sure you don’t get in the way.” He hissed. 

“We didn’t d-d-do anyth-th-thing,” Richie whimpered.

“Liar!” He growled, causing Richie to close his eyes tight. “She told me all about it,” he grinned.

“NO! RICHIE IT ISN’T TRUE!” I shouted, even though I knew they couldn’t hear me. Richie’s eyes widened in realization to what my uncle just said.

“She also told me she hated you with a burning passion. (Y/N) is actually the person who sent me here. She wanted me to get rid of you, so I’m just here to fulfill her demands.” He smirked. 

He took the blade and sliced it across Richie’s throat.

“NO!” I screamed as loud as I could, while hot tears spilled from my eyes. Richie’s limp body fell to the floor as blood trickled down his neck. My uncle just left him there, huffing, and getting back into his car. He ran over Richie’s bike and drove off. Behind the car was the clown.

IT.

“What have you done?” IT pretended to be shocked and walked over to Richie’s body. Richie’s eyes were still wide open, it was a haunting sight to look at. It was like watching a doll staring into your soul.

“At least I have an appetizer now,” IT drooled on Richie, revealing a large roll of sharp teeth. “You thought you pathetic little children would get rid of me that easily.” IT dragged Richie into a nearby sewer.

“LET HIM GO! LET HIM GO, YOU BASTARD!” I screamed, I screamed and screamed and screamed.

“(Y/N)! Sweetie!” I heard Aunt Becky call out, opening the door of the bathroom. I didn’t even notice I had my eyes closed. When I opened them, I was back in the bathroom. The wall that was taken down was back in its position. There were no vines holding me down, instead I was curled up in a ball against the wall where they once were. Aunt Becky wrapped her arms around me as I whimpered.

“Shhh, you’re okay,” she kept repeating. Bev came in as well joining in on the hug.

“What happened?” She asked softly.

“I th-thought I saw my uncle,” I half-lied. “It just felt s-s-so real.” Bev looked at me, with her face saying ‘was it more than that?’ I just nodded, and her face showed a hint of fear. 

“Do you still want to go to school?” Aunt Becky asked, stroking my hair. 

“Yea, it’s good, I’m fine.” I sniffed and wiped away a stray tear.

“Are you sure?” She broke off the hug, and I nodded.

“Ok, but if anything like this happens there, just call.” She smiled sweetly.

“I’ll make sure of that.” Bev said, standing up and pulling me up with her. I decided to change in our bedroom instead of the washroom, and we went downstairs to eat breakfast. While eating the toast in my hand, a million questions went through my head. Did IT come back? It couldn’t have, Ben said that IT came every twenty-seven years. And all the encounters with IT have been physically there. When Bev’s bathroom filled with blood, it was actually there. This also felt real but it was just a hallucination. Everything went back to normal. Why is it different with me? Maybe, this was just me having a traumatic event. I was compelled into almost killing my friends, and that’s something I can’t just forget. I let the thought go to the back of my head, and continued to eat.

Then the phone rang.


	6. School Day

(Richie’s POV)

“Hello?” (Y/N) said over the phone. I let out a sigh of relief, knowing she was okay.

“Oh thank god you’re okay.” I smiled.

“No shit! I’m really sorry I forgot to call yesterday.” She said. I actually forgot to get yesterday afternoon. I was so caught up with the losers, it never crossed my mind.

“No, it’s okay, I was kind of busy anyways.”

“Doing what?” She asked.

“The group went out for ice cream.” I smiled, remembering how I slammed Eddie’s face into his ice cream.

“Oh, well Bev and I made some friends.”

Already?

“Who are they?” I said, trying not to seem annoyed.

“Well, you’re not going to believe this, but one of them looks exactly like you.” She chuckled. I clenched my jaw and my hands balled into fists as the jealousy rushed through me.

“Don’t worry, Rich. I’m not cheating on you,” she read my mind.

“That’s not what I’m worrying about,” I gritted through my teeth.

“Richie,” she spoke softly, calming me down. “There’s nothing going on.”

“Ok, ok fine.” I sighed. “Who else is in the group.

“Their names are Dustin, Lucas, Will, Max and Mike is the guy who looks like you.” She listed. My jealous nature came back up again.

“It’s a whole group of guys?!” I yelled through the phone.

“Correction, Max is a girl. It’s not a full group of boys!” She chuckled nervously.

“There’s a majority of boys,” I muttered. I heard (Y/N) sigh.

“Hey Rich? I need you to trust me. Nothing will happen. You trust me right?” She asked.

“Of course I do,” I sighed.

“Then trust me.”

“Ok.” I could feel her smiling on the other side. Then I heard another muffled voice over the phone.

“Shit, Rich I gotta go,” she said sadly.

“Nah, it’s okay. I should probably start getting ready anyways.” I shrugged. “Should I call you in the afternoon?”

“Uh, I promised I’d talk to Stan.”

“Nah, it’s okay.” I said, though I was kind of disappointed. “Bye (Y/N)!”

“Bye Richie.”

***

(Y/N) POV

I leaned against the window of the car, thinking about what I had saw in the morning. Flashes of Richie’s dead body kept floating into my head. I truly felt terrified when I watched it. That just concluded that my fear was losing someone closest to.

“Hey,” Bev whispered, getting my attention. “Nothing happened, it wasn’t real.” She assured me. I nodded in response and relax a little, pushing those dark thoughts to the back of my head. The high school came into view as Aunt Becky came to the front of the school. I immediately noticed the group standing in front of the doorway.

“I’ll pick you girls up at 3:00, ok.” She said, as we got out of the car. We nodded and closed the door behind us before she drove away.

“Hey (Y/N), Beverly!” I heard Max call out. We turned around and walked towards them.

“What’s up, weirdos?” I smiled.

“Just nervous,” Will chuckled nervously. “First day of high school.” Everyone simultaneously looked at the new place we’d be going to.

“I’m sure it’s not that bad.” I shrugged, trying to stay happy.

“There’s only one way to find out,” Bev grinned, causing me to do the same.

“What’s your homeroom classes?” Dustin asked.

“We both have science,” Bev stated and all of their eyes widened in excitement.

“With Mr. Clarke?” Lucas smiled.

“Uh yea.” I deadpanned.

“So do we!” Dustin exclaimed.

“Don’t worry Mr. Clarke is an amazing teacher,” Mike cut in.

“As long as he’s not Mr. Peters,” I shrugged, causing Bev to chuckle.

“Who’s he?” Will asked.

“This stupid ass teacher that Bev and I had for science.” I gritted my teeth.

“She told him to fuck off,” Bev chuckled. 

“Was he really that bad?” Max asked.

“She wouldn’t have told him that if he wasn’t.” Mike said matter-of-factly, clearly annoyed. Max looked at him like ‘really?’ and he sighed.

“Baby steps,” he stated.

“I know,” she smiled sincerely. I looked at them in confusion, but shrugged it off almost immediately.

“So can we go in?” I smirked, causing them to nod and walk into the building.

***

Homeroom was actually interesting. Mr. Clarke turned out to be a good teacher.

“Toldja!” Mike nudged me. I sat in between him and Bev. Max and Will were behind me and Bev, while Dustin sat behind Lucas who was in the other side of Mike. 

“Whatever,” I rolled my eyes. It was good to notice Mike didn’t remind me of Richie too much. Since their personalities were so drastically different, it was like talking to a completely different person even if they wore the same face. The other boys were so focused on what Mr. Clarke was saying, it was really funny. It was amplified when I noticed everyone else looked like they couldn’t care less. I looked over to Bev who was doodling in her notebook.

“You writing those hearts where you put yours and Bill’s first initials,” I whispered.

“Yea, but I’m doing it with yours and Richie’s.” She grinned and kept drawing. I stuck my tongue out discretely and turned my attention back to the front of the class.

***

The rest of the first half went by pretty fast, it was lunch now and I had just finished math with Bev and Max. For some reason, the teacher already gave us a project already, on the bright side I was in a group with Max and Bev so it wasn’t too bad. I wanted to call the teacher out, but I didn’t want to give a bad first impression. I’d just wait until we knew each other to start pissing her off.

“Seriously who gives a project on the first day? And in ninth grade?” Max rolled her eyes, as we made our way to the cafeteria.

“High school teachers, that’s who.” Bev chuckled. We walked into the cafeteria and spotted the boys sitting at a nearby table. Lucas waved at us, or more specifically Max to come over. I noticed a small colour of red creep up on her cheeks.

Oh.

I stopped her in her tracks. “What was that?” I smirked.

“What are you talking about?” Max tilted her head in confusion.

“Bev, my twenty-twenty vision of love is at work.” I crossed my arms.

“Oh god,” Bev groaned and rolled her eyes. Then her eyes widened. “Nevermind, I know what you’re talking about.”

“I’m really confused.” Max cut in.

“You and Lukey Boy gotta thing going on, don’t ya?” I said in my obnoxious accent.

“Well-uh. It’s um-“ She stammered.

“Yup! She’s tripping over her words,” Bev smirked. 

“Has anything happened between you two?” I asked.

“We kinda kissed?” She chuckled awkwardly. “But that’s all it was! It was at a dance and I got caught up in the moment.”

“Wait, so nothing has happened after that?” Bev raised an eyebrow.

“We just went back to friends,” she shrugged. “It’s really nothing.” I glanced over to the boys, who looked confused as to why we weren’t coming over.

“You know what? We’ll talk about this later.” I smiled and we walked over to their table.

“What were you talking about?” Dustin asked, as we sat down.

“Periods and all that jazz.” I lied. The boys cringed in response, going back to their food.

“Disgusting,” Mike shook his head.

“I can’t believe they managed to make the cafeteria food worse than back in middle school.” Will spit out his food. I grabbed my bag and pulled out a bag full of junk food that me and Bev bought after hanging out with the group yesterday.

“Dig in, fellas.” I smiled. The group immediately open the bag and began picking out certain candies.

“Save some 3 musketeers bars for me.” I called out.

“You like 3 musketeers?” Lucas and Dustin said simultaneously. Lucas said it in disgust, while Dustin lit up.

“It’s literally just nougat!” Lucas said matter-of-factly.

“So?” I said defensively. 

“Thank you!” Dustin exclaimed. “Finally someone here appreciates the amazing piece of candy.” He held up his hand for a high five, which I gladly accepted. The group half chuckled and half groaned because of our behaviour. We continued to talk about random topics and munch on the junk food.

***

Thankfully, all of us had last period together. So, it wasn’t a hassle to find each other. We walked out of the front of the school.

“Do you guys want to come over to my house? We could have dinner there too?” Mike suggested as we walked down to the bike rack.

“We probably need to ask Aunt Becky, first.” Bev said. Right on cue, we saw her car pull up. She rolled down the window as we walked toward her.

“Aunt Becky, do you think we could join our friends for dinner?” I asked.

“Oh that’s perfect actually! I wanted to get some stuff for Terry anyway.” She smiled. “Go! Have fun! I’ll pick you up at 8:30.”

“Thanks!” Bev exclaimed. We said our goodbyes and she drove off.

“Looks like we can go.” I smiled as we walked back towards the group. 

“Awesome!” Mike exclaimed. They went over to the bike rack. But I remembered we didn’t bring our bikes. They took notice of this.

“(Y/N), you can ride on the back of my bike?” Dustin suggested. 

“Beverly, you can ride on mine?” Lucas also suggested. We both nodded and hopped on. But before that I heard Bev say “I won’t steal your man Max, don’t worry,” discreetly to her. The comment made me chuckle, especially when Max went full on red. She rode off first on her skateboard, probably trying to get away from us.

“What happened to her?” Will asked. Bev and I shrugged, pretending to be oblivious. We finally rode off to Mike’s house.


	7. Jealousy

(Richie’s POV)

“Four guys?!” Bill looked at me in disbelief. 

“Well, there’s one girl.” Mike countered.

“I don’t think that helps, Mike.” Eddie rolled his eyes. All of us were hanging out at my house, after school. I was telling them about the friends (Y/N) and Beverly made, and most of them had the same reaction I had when I found out.

“I can’t believe they ruh-replaced us so qu-qu-quickly,” Bill sighed.

“Oh, calm the fuck down Bill. They didn’t replace us.” Eddie said matter-of-factly. “We can’t stop them from making friends.”

“But did they have to find some so quickly?” Ben cut in.

“You guys are really overreacting,” Eddie scoffed. “Rich, what do you think?”

“(Y/N) told me to trust her, and I do. But she said there’s a guy who looks exactly like me.”

“Wait, really. There’s another one of you? I don’t think I can handle that.” Eddie leaned against the wall.

“Oh shut it, Eds.” I crossed my arms.

“Stop calling me that,” he spat.

“What’s his name?” Stan cut in.

“Mike.”

“Holy shit! Really?” Mike exclaimed. “I don’t know if I should be annoyed or amused.”

“I’d be a-a-annoyed,” Bill muttered.

“Am I really the only one okay with them having other friends?” Eddie asked.

“Nah, I’m cool with it.” Mike shrugged.

“Even if the guy who looks exactly like Richie has your name.” Stan raised an eyebrow.

“You guys do know it was inevitable, right?” Mike looked around. “Would you rather see them completely lonely with no one to talk to?”

I let Mike’s words sink in, and imagined a lonely (Y/N) and Beverly. I’d never want to be alone if I were them. I should know, my parents are never here to notice I even exist. I shouldn’t let my jealousy keep her from having a good time.

“He’s right,” I stood up. 

“How do you know (Y/N) wuh-wuh-won’t go with this Mike dude, s-s-since he looks like you?” Bill questioned.

“Because I trust her, that’s why.” I smiled her. “And Bill? I know you’re worried about Beverly, but you should trust her too.” Bill’s demeanour softened as my comment sinked in.

“Listen up, fuckers!” I exclaimed. “No one can replace the fucking losers club. I mean, you’re never going to find who replace someone like Eddie or Stan or Mike or Bill or Ben.”

“Should I be offended or thankful?” Eddie questioned.

“Just let him continue,” Stan said.

“If they forgot about us, they wouldn’t be calling us everyday. That’s fucking commitment.” I crossed my arms.

“So, what’s your point?” Ben asked.

“I’m saying, they aren’t just going to forget us overnight. Plus, they said they’d try and visit, so we should stop worrying about them.” I stopped and thought for a second. “Stan, you’re calling (Y/N) today right?”

“Yea, so?” He asked.

“Let’s call her right now, and we’ll hear it from her herself.” I suggested and walked over to the phone. I dialed her number and waited.

“Hello?” A voice that wasn’t (Y/N)’s or Beverly’s picked up.

“Hi, this is Richie. (Y/N)’s boyfriend and Beverly’s friend.” I heard the boys groan behind me.

“You’re unbearable,” Eddie rolled his eyes.

“Can we speak to them?” I continued.

“They are actually out with some friends they made.” She stated.

“Wait, what?”

(Y/N) POV

Mike’s house was pretty big, all of us just talked about more random shit. We were eventually called down for dinner and made our way downstairs from Mike’s room. As we sat down, I noticed the girl Bev and I talked to for directions.

“You’re Mike’s sister?” I asked, grabbing a plate.

“Unfortunately,” he muttered, causing her to elbow him.

“I’m Nancy,” she smiled. 

“I’m (Y/N) and this is Beverly” I gestured to Bev sitting beside me. Mike’s mom made mashed potatoes, green beans, and some weird meat I’ve never seen.

“This taste really good,” Bev complimented, taking a bite of the meat.

“What type of meat is this?” I asked, playing with the red meat.

“Roast beef,” Lucas said.

“I’ve never tried it,” I shrugged.

“What?” Everyone said except for Bev and Mike’s parents.

“Did your parents not know how to cook it?” Mike asked.

I stayed silent.

It was the first time in a long time, I had nothing to say. Bev looked at me with remorse. It also looked like Mike took notice of this.

“Oh, sorry! I didn’t mean t-“ I cut him off.

“No, it’s okay.” I waved it off. The table fell silent. An awkward silence.

“Did you’re parents die?” Mike’s dad asked, causing everyone to look at him in disbelief and me to shift uncomfortably.

“Yea,” I looked down.

“How?” He asked, taking another bite of his roast beef.

“Ted,” Mike’s mother nudged him, trying to get him to stop.

“Car crash.” I stated. I was not expecting this dinner to go this way. I couldn’t take any more questions.

“May I use the washroom?” I dropped my fork. Mike’s mother nodded and I bolted to a door before she could tell me where it was. The door apparently led to the basement instead of the bathroom. I walked downstairs.

(Mike’s POV)

My dad just couldn’t keep his mouth shut, couldn’t he? I felt really bad for bringing up (Y/N)’s parents. My mom was lecturing him, telling him that he was acting disrespectfully.

“I’ll go check on her.” Beverly stood up. I felt like it should be who should talk to her, considering I brought it up.

“Um, Beverly, can I talk to her instead.” I stood in her way.

“No offence, but I know her better.” She said, impatiently.

“Please, it’s my fault.” I pleaded. She crossed her arms and tapped her foot, thinking for a second.

“Fine,” she sighed. “But I’m talking to her after, immediately.” 

“Thank you.” I said before running to the door that lead to the basement. I walked down the stairs and was surprised to see (Y/N) wasn’t crying. Instead she was staring off into a distance, sitting on the couch. She noticed me, but her face grew confused.

“They sent you?” She questioned.

“I sent me.” I said, walking to the couch to sit beside her.

“I thought they’d send Bev,” she scoffed.

“She was going to, but I wanted to come.” 

“Why?” She asked.

“I wanted to apologi-“ she cut me off.

“You wanted to apologize? It’s not your fault.” She tilted her head in confusion.

“I brought it up,” I muttered.

“You’re dad amplified it.” She leaned back on the couch.

“He usually doesn’t know what he saying until he said it.” I rubbed the back of my neck.

“No offence, but your dad is an asshole.” 

I sighed. “Yea.”

“But his ‘speaks before he thinks’ nature reminds me of someone.” She smiled weakly.

“I’m assuming it’s your boyfriend?” I questioned, which she nodded to in response.

“D’you have anyone special?” She asked.

“Yea, actually.” I smiled, remembering El. I knew where she was, but there were only certain times I could talk to her. 

“Where is she?” (Y/N) asked. 

“Remember that confidential shit?” 

“Ah, I get it. But can you at least tell me about her.” She snuggled into the couch more.

“Well, she’s amazing, definitely a badass. She’s also really brave, braver than I could ever be.” I noticed (Y/N) smile as I talked about El.

“What her name?”

“It’s Jane, but I call her El. She’ll always be El to me.” I chuckled.

“She seems like a cool person,” She nodded.

“She is,” I leaned back into the couch.

“Weirdly, your explanation of your girlfriend made me feel better.” She sighed. “I was living with my uncle before I moved here.”

I turned to her, surprised at the sudden story. “I’m guessing since you didn’t know what roast beef was, he wasn’t very caring.”

“Not in the slightest. I was ignored most of the time.” She said, but shifted a little and her tone changed. I assumed she may be lying, but I didn’t want to push her.

“I’m sorry about that.” I muttered.

“You apologize a lot,” she snorted.

“Sor- I mean, yea I do.” I shrugged.

“He was more of an asshole than your father,” she continued. 

“At least you’re away from him now.” I said. I decided not to ask why she moved here, considering it had something to do with her Uncle and I didn’t want to bring up bad memories.

“I had to leave my whole life behind though.” She sighed.

“Does this Richie kid actually look like me?” I asked.

“So much, it’s creepy.” She smiled, causing us both to chuckle.

“Thanks Mike.” 

“I don’t actually think I did anything,” I shrugged.

“You did more than enough,” She nudged me. The door opened, revealing Beverly at the top.

“I guess that’s my cue to leave.” I got up from the couch and passed Beverly as she went down the stairs.

“I called my aunt, she said she’s coming in ten minutes.” Bev flashed me an apologetic smile. “And the others left.”

“Thanks for coming. And I’m sorry about... y’know.” I smiled sadly.

“You couldn’t control him, it’s okay.” She patted my shoulder. I went back upstairs and heard some muttering coming from my parents. I shrugged it off and helped Nancy put away the plates.


	8. Late Night Scare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains graphic depictions of violence and sexual harassment. Read at your own risk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YAY! My exams are done. I’m done with the first semester, but next semester is even harder in my opinion so.....
> 
> Anyway, enjoy this chapter!

(Y/N) POV

The ride home from Mike’s house was a quiet one. I never expected my parents to be brought so suddenly. That’s what I wanted to get away from. I can forget about my past, but I can’t escape it. I wonder what my parents were like. Were they head-strong and quick-witted? Did they look like a normal 80’s couple? Did my father hate his brother as much as I did? He probably did and so did my mom, considering she ended up with my father. I wish I could remember them. I mean, they made a pretty cool daughter. We finally came home and I wanted to go straight to bed, even though I wasn’t tired. I changed into my pj’s and slumped on the bed.

“Good night (Y/N).” Bev said snuggling into her bed. I said the same and closed my eyes for another time in Hawkins, Indiana.

***

Though my eyes were closed, my body just didn’t want to sleep. I was just so restless I couldn’t do it. I glanced at the clock which read 2:30 am. I decided to get a glass of milk, so I went downstairs and open the fridge. I opened the cabin-

“(Y/N)?” Bev appeared from up the stairs. I sighed in relief knowing it wasn’t a burglar or something. Why would a burglar know my name? I think I was kind of being stupid. Anyway, I looked up to Bev who looked scared out of her mind.

“Bev, is something wrong?” I asked, tilting my head in confusion. She slowly came down the stairs and I realized why she looked so scared. 

My uncle had a switchblade around her neck.

“Phil,” I whispered, trembling out of fear. No, no it’s not real. I know it’s not real. This IT, I know it. I examined my uncle and noticed his head was caved in right where I hit him. I gulped and hesitantly taking a step forward, which caused his grip on Bev to be tighter.

“Please, don’t hurt her.” I whimpered, holding my hands up.

“Y’know,” my uncle smirked, caressing the knife against Bev’s neck. “I wanted to do a trade. Your friends safety for you coming with me. But maybe I’ll just take your friend. She’s very pretty girl, would probably obey orders better than you did. So I’ll just take her.” He said, playing with her hair.

“No, no this-this isn’t real. Your dead, I killed you.” I shook my head. This was IT.

“You still don’t get it, do you.” He spoke softly.

“Get what?” Tears threatened to form in my eyes.

“Whatever,” he rolled his eyes and started to pierce the knife into Bev’s throat, but I got to him before he did any real damage. I wrestled with him for the switchblade, while Bev dropped to the ground not moving a muscle. His grip on the knife was too strong and he sent me flying backwards, with more force than someone his size could do. 

He picked up Bev and pierced her neck, causing it to open and blood to spill from the open wound. I watched in horror as he continued to stab her in her neck repeatedly. My feet wouldn’t move from there spot. I was frozen. He finally dropped her, but not before grabbing her face and smashing his lips to her corpse. I gagged as he kept his eyes on me the whole time. He broke off the sadistic kiss and started laughing. The laugh became more and more sinister. As the laugh got deeper. My uncle started to change.

Into a clown.

Into IT. 

Then IT charged towards me, but my instincts kicked in and I quickly ran up the stairs to my bedroom. I slammed the door behind me.

“(Y/N)?” The real Bev shot up from her bed and walked towards me. That’s when the real tears came. She was okay. I immediately caught her off guard as I hugged her tightly.

“You saw IT again?” She whispered. I nodded into her shoulder and she hugged me tighter. 

“Hey, I’m here, I’m here.” She cooed as I whimpered into her shoulder.

I think IT’s back.


	9. Connected

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You finally know why you’ve been targeted by Pennywise. And ITs not letting you go off easy.

(Y/N) POV

My luck was really shitty in the morning too. After my encounter with IT, it was so hard for me to sleep. Flashes of Richie’s dead body and Bev’s body came to my mind every time my eyes closed. I decided to take a shower to get my mind of this. It was currently 5:30am in the morning, so I just went to the bathroom because there was nothing to change into.

I locked the door behind me and stripped down, leaving my clothes on the toilet seat. I set the level to hot and let the water hit my face. I have to admit it was actually relaxing. I just let the sound of hot water hitting my body fill my ears. I washed out my face with my hands, until I felt something thicker hit my skin. I checked my wrist to see what went on it, but nothing was there.

I looked down and nothing was there either. I shrugged it off and started scrubbing my hair.

Then I felt it again. 

I looked down and saw the slightest bit of red going down the drain. I thought maybe that time of the month had come again, but it wasn’t coming from down there.

It was coming from the shower head?

I looked up and examined it, then another drop of the red crimson hit my forehead. I wiped it off and saw the red substance on my fingers.

Slowly, more and more drops of the red water fell on my body.

No.

It’s happening again.

I tried turning the shower off, but nothing was happening. So, I tried opening the shower curtain, but it wouldn’t budge. Something was pulling it back. 

The red-coloured water started to fall more prominently instead of normal water. I started to gag at the sudden smell of hot iron. It was a disgusting smell. Then I realized the substance.

Blood.

Right as the thought came to my mind, the water was completely replaced with blood. And it wasn’t coming down like shower water. It was coming down like someone was continuously pouring it down. The blood covered my eyesight, as some of it went into my mouth. I tried wiping it off my face, but as more was wiped off a new batch would replace it. I began choking on the blood, it was too much to bare. 

I looked towards the shower curtain and barely made out the shadows beginning to form outside. 

The shadow grew bigger until it broke into 5 different people. They all had different features, they kind of looked like-

“(Y/N)! Help us!” A whimpering voice that sounded like-

“Eddie?” I called out. 

Then all the shadows dropped to the floor. It looked like they were crawling, struggling. Trying to survive.

The curtain came down completely to my surprise but was replaced with an invisible wall, because I still couldn’t get out of the shower. Luckily, there was a towel next to me that I could reach. I wouldn’t let the fact my friends were in danger get in the way of me covering up. I wrapped myself in the towel and cleaned my face as best as I could. Once my eyesight cleared, what I saw was the definition of horror.

Mike H. was in the corner coughing up blood while holding his neck that had the red crimson spilling from where he held it. Ben laid on the ground, totally lifeless while stab wounds covered his body. Stan was screaming hysterically while holding the side of his face that wasn’t torn off completely. Bill was lying on top of Ben with all of his limbs scattered across the bathroom. And Eddie had black veins all over his body, currently vomiting a black substance. His eyes were bloodshot red, and every single one of their clothes was ripped and muddy. My uncle who appeared out of nowhere took a gigantic needle and stabbed it into Eddie’s arm, making Eddie shriek in pain. 

I covered my mouth in shock as Eddie started shaking profusely, while the black vomit was replaced with white foam. My uncle moved from person to person injecting it into their system. I saw Mike struggling the most as he was still weakly defending himself. Unfortunately, my uncle had put pressure on Mike’s wound, making him vulnerable. Then everyone, including the dead ones were shaking vigorously just like Eddie.

I started screaming when I noticed their faces were melting off. But they were also still alive somehow. They got up and started charging towards me, screaming things like-

“How could you?”

“You left us!”

“It’s your fault!”

“We’re dying because of you!”

“Why, (Y/N)?”

I just sunk into the bathtub letting the wall stain with red as I curled up into a ball.

Then all of a sudden, all sound was gone. I hesitantly opened my eyes and no one was there. Not only that, I wasn’t covered in blood anymore, in fact I was completely clean. 

Why me?

Why is this happening to me? I went away from Derry to avoid this, but IT followed me here. ITs out to get me. 

“(Y/NNNN)!” A voice whispered. I snapped my head towards the open space, but nothing was there. I got up from the bathtub and reapplied my clothes. I opened the door and-

A hand grabbed my neck, slamming against the wall.

It was Richie.

With his throat slit.

I wasn’t-I couldn’t let it get to me. This is IT trying to taunt me again.

“You’re. Not. Real,” I choked out. ‘Richie’ started to grin impossibly wide, but he grew mad at my resistance. His eyes started to turn bright yellow, as orangey hair began to pop out of his scalp. It was a haunting sight, but I didn’t let it faze me. He began to grow so tall, he had to bend down so he would touch the ceiling. He turned into the clown, into IT.

“You don’t get it do you?” IT growled.

“Don’t get what, asshole?” I grunted, still trying to break free.

“I’m inside your head now,” IT grinned.

“I don’t know what that means!” I coughed.

“Just because you got out of your trance, doesn’t mean you’re completely free of my control.” IT said in a childish voice. My eyes widened in realization. 

That’s why everything went back to normal after I saw Richie die, same with Bev and the losers.

“Ding ding ding! You’re correct! Do you want a prize?” IT chuckled, revealing its disgusting teeth.

“You can read my thoughts?” 

“Oh yes! And I can follow you around to! Your new friends seem nice!” IT drooled, causing me to gag. “What their names? Oh! Lucas, Dustin, Max, Mike and I already know Will!”

“How do you-“

“He was apart of my masters army, but was.... comprised.” ITs grin turned into a frown.

“You’re someone else’s bitch?” I spat. IT grew mad and threw me to the ground. I backed up to the wall as IT came closer.

“If you want to keep your friends alive, I suggest you don’t insult me.” IT growled.

That kept my mouth shut.

“Now I have a plan for you,” IT clapped. “You are going to help me! I need you to be a sacrifice.”

“Like, kill myself?” My voice cracked.

“I just need one more child.” He put up one finger.

“For what?” I gritted through my teeth.

“I can’t tell you that,” IT shook ITs head. “I can tell you that your friends will be safe.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Then I’ll choose one of your other friends instead. I have a lot to choose from. There’s your new friends, your precious losers club. I could go right down the hall and steal little ol’ Beverly! Or your boooooyfriend!”

My fear started to fluster as IT mentioned my friends. The thought of them dying because of me wasn’t something I wanted to suffer. 

“Fine,” I sighed. “But you promise not to hurt them.” IT rolled his eyes, but nodded. 

“But I want to make this painful, so I won’t take you yet.” IT grinned. “I want to make you suffer.”

“Why?”

“Because you caused me pain, and that doesn’t go unpunished.” IT shook ITs head. “You must tell all your friends that you never want to see them again. I want you to make them feel pain, like you did with me.”

“No.” I whispered as tears started to well up in my eyes.

“Yes,” IT growled. “I want you to start with Richie.” IT chuckled. Word could not describe how devastated I was when I heard his name. The guy who has liked me since he met me has to get his heart broken because I was dumb enough to get captured. All of my friends were in danger because of me. I was their burden. I couldn’t- I wouldn’t let this happen to them. I even dragged my new friends into this. 

This is my fault.

“I’ll do it.” I shivered at my words.

“Good,” he kept repeating as he vanished. I hugged my knees and cried into them.

I had to lose my friends.


	10. Danger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A certain telekinetic weirdo finds out about your situation with IT

(Jane/El’s POV)

“May I go check on him.” I asked Dad about. It’s been too long since I’ve contacted Mike. Thankfully we’ve talked quite frequently, but I want to at least see him.

“In that dark place thingy?” He asked, causing me to nod in return. “Y’know that’s a large use of your powers.”

“Actually, I’ve been learning to do it without using too much.” I explained. He sighed, thinking about it.

“Promise me,” he leaned to look me straight in the eye. “Promise me, you won’t talk to him. Remember there are only designated times-“

“I can talk to him, I know.” I finished his sentence. He nodded his head to the TV, letting me do it.

“Thank you, Dad.” I hugged him, making him chuckle and I got my blindfold and sat in front of the TV. I put the blindfold on and focused my mind to the dark place. Once I opened my eyes, I was there. 

“Do you have anyone special?” A girly voice asked. Mike and a girl I’ve never seen before appeared. They were sitting on a couch. It was the one in Mike’s basement. My jealousness kicked in at the sight of Mike with another girl, until I listened to their conversation.

“Yea, actually.” He started to smile.

“Where is she?” The girl asked.

“Remember that confidential shit?” He asked. Shit? What does that mean? I remember Dustin saying it a couple of times, but I’ve never understood what it meant.

“Ah, I get it, but can you at least tell me about her?” 

“Well, she’s amazing, definitely a badass. She’s also really brave, braver than I could ever be.” He smiled, talking about someone. Is he talking about me?

“What’s her name?”

“It’s Jane, but I call her El.” He smiled. I felt heat go up to my cheeks. He was talking about me. It made me feel special that he still talked about me.

“She seems like a really cool person.” The girl nodded.

Oh, I like her now.

I’ve decided to think of this girl as a friend. She’s not trying to replace me or take Mike away. I’ve learned that boys and girls can just be friends. I still don’t know the actual word for more than friends, but I know they are not like that. I decided to call it a day as they vanished.

Then I heard something else.

“You’re. Not. Real.” A voice that sounded like they were choking said. In front of me, the same girl appeared, but she had a hand around her neck. The hand belonged to Mike? But he was wearing a short sleeve sweater with flowers on it. His hair was also curlier and he was wearing glasses. But the feature that caught me off guard was the fact his neck was cut open. Then ‘Mike’ started to morf into a very tall man with orangey-red hair, yellow eyes, pale white skin, buck teeth, and a big white puffy suit. I knew the girl was in danger, but I knew this was from yesterday, so it already happened.

“You don’t get it, do you?” The thing growled at her, causing me to flinch.

“Don’t get what, asshole?” The girl continued to struggle.

“I’m inside your head now,” the thing I decided to call IT grinned.

“I don’t know what that means!” I admired the girl for barely showing fear.

“Just because you got out of your trance, doesn’t mean you’re completely free of my control.” IT said in a childish voice. She looked like she was realizing something.

“Ding ding ding! You’re correct! Do you want a prize?” IT chuckled, revealing its disgusting teeth. I assumed since he was ‘inside her head,’ he could read her mind.

“You can read my thoughts?” 

“Oh yes! And I can follow you around to! Your new friends seem nice!” IT drooled, causing me to gag. “What their names? Oh! Lucas, Dustin, Max, Mike and I already know Will!”

No.

They’re in danger. My friends are in danger.

“How do you-“

“He was apart of my masters army, but was.... comprised.” ITs grin turned into a frown. That’s when I realized who he was.

He was apart of the mind flayer’s army. That’s the only way he could’ve known about Will.

“You’re someone else’s bitch?” I spat. IT grew mad and threw her to the ground. She backed up and stopped against nothing.

“If you want to keep your friends alive, I suggest you don’t insult me.” IT growled. “Now I have a plan for you,” IT clapped. “You are going to help me! I need you to be a sacrifice.”

“Like kill myself?” Her voice cracked.

“I just need one more child.” He put up one finger.

“For what?” She gritted through my teeth.

“I can’t tell you that,” IT shook ITs head. “I can tell you that your friends will be safe.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Then I’ll choose one of your other friends instead. I have a lot to choose from. There’s your new friends, your precious losers club. I could go right down the hall and steal little ol’ Beverly! Or your boooooyfriend!” This made me feel bad for the girl. She was being held against her will. It’s either she dies or her and my friends do. 

“Fine,” She sighed. I can’t believe she’s actually willing to die. I guess anyone would do the same, but that takes a lot of bravery. “But you promise not to hurt them.” IT rolled his eyes, but nodded. 

“But I want to make this painful, so I won’t take you yet.” IT grinned. “I want to make you suffer.” This IT thing was getting me mad. IT was making this poor girl do something horrible to herself.

“Why?”

“Because you caused me pain, and that doesn’t go unpunished.” IT shook ITs head. “You must tell all your friends that you never want to see them again. I want you to make them feel pain, like you did with me.”

“No.” She whispered, I almost missed it. 

“Yes,” IT growled. “I want you to start with Richie.” IT chuckled. Who was Richie? It was possibly one of her friends. Maybe, part of the losers club?

“I’ll do it.” She spoke boldly.

“Good,” he kept repeating as he vanished. She hugged my knees and cried into them. I didn’t want to let this happen. Friends shouldn’t leave someone behind. This girl had to break people’s hearts, just to save them.

“Bad.” I whispered, thinking about IT. I’m not letting IT hurt a friend. I needed to tell Mike. I needed to sneak out, without Dad knowing. Not only do friends not lie.

They also don’t get left behind.


	11. Cut Them Off

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You give Richie a call.

(Y/N) POV

Today was the day. Today was the day I had to break up with Richie. I didn’t go to sleep after my encounter with IT. I knew I had to, but I didn’t know who it was going to break more. Richie or me. It was 7:00, and I knew he called every morning.

‘Make it painful.’

I went downstairs to the phone and dialled his number.

“Hello?” A voice I immediately knew was him called out.

“It’s (Y/N).” I spoke bluntly.

“Oh my god, hi. You have no idea how much I wanted to talk to you! I told the losers about your new friend group, and they got jealous. But guess who changed their minds? Your one and only Richie Tozier! Well, with a little help from Mike. Not the Mike from Hawkins, the Mike here. And Eddie, but he wasn’t doing anything, considering he was-“ I continued to hear Richie ramble about what he was talking about. I wanted to smile and laugh. I wanted to tell him how much I miss him, and how he means everything to me.

But I couldn’t.

“Richie!” I cut him off.

“Shit, I’m rambling aren’t I?” He chuckled. “Sorry, I’ve been wanting talk to you for awhile. What is it?” I couldn’t do this, I couldn’t do this to him. My breath hitched as tears threatened to form in my eyes. I need to do this, I have no other choice.

“Richie I-. I’m breaking up with you.”

There was silence over the phone. 

“(Y/N), that joke isn’t funny.” He chuckled nervously.

“Do you have to take everything as a joke?” I pretended to be angry.

“W-what did I do! I promise I can fix it!” His voice cracked. I assumed he was starting to cry which made me want to die.

“There’s nothing you can do. I never want to see you again. You’re selfish, rude, and a horrible person.” Everything I said felt like a dagger.

“If you want me to change I can. Please (Y/N), don’t do this.” He hiccuped. I shut my eyes tight, wishing this would go away. Instead, more tears just came out.

“Richie, we’re over.” I tried to sound strong.

“Please,” He barely whispered.

“Tell the losers they’re dead to me too.” I huffed.

“(Y/-“ I cut him off by ending the call. I slumped on the wall and cried profusely. I cried even harder when I realized clowns wasn’t Richie’s only fear.

It was being forgotten or abandoned.

I had just made him face his fear in the worse way possible. I looked up and saw IT towering over me.

“Poor you,” IT pretended to be mad. “But I had four spears stabbed into me and two of them came from you.” 

“It’s because you deserved it,” I mumbled through the tears.

“Now onto your new friends!” IT cheered, clapping ITs hands. “But I don’t want you to just tell them to get away from you. I want you to ignore them for a week.”

“A week?” I looked at him in disbelief. IT chuckled and nodded ITs head.

“How am I supposed to do that?” I hiccuped.

“Not my problem,” IT shrugged. “Unless you want to see, for example, Mike with his limbs ripped from their sockets.”

“I’ll do it,” I growled.

“See? Just obey,” IT patted my head, which I slapped away. IT vanished and I went back to crying.

***

School was torture. I sat at the back of the classroom in homeroom. I only payed attention to the teacher because I had all classes with at least one of them. Let me tell you, teachers are fucking boring. I sat alone at lunch and I looked like a fucking stray dog. And the end of the day wasn’t any better. Once the bell rang, instead of waiting for everyone in the group I bolted outside and ran down the hall to get out side. I just wanted Aunt Becky to come and take me away from this situation.

“(Y/N)!” I heard Mike call out as I walked outside. All I have to do is ignore them. I decided to just not turn around.

“(Y/N)!” He got closer, running up to me. Fuck, why is he so fast?

“You’ve been ignoring us all day.” He furrowed his eyebrows. “Is something wrong?” I walked away without talking to him. I couldn’t make eye contact with any of them, it was too heart-breaking. I caught Aunt Becky’s car driving up and immediately ran to it and got inside.

“Hi (Y/N), how was School?” She asked.

“It was fine,” I lied.

“Where’s Beverly?” 

“Probably at the front,” I shrugged and put my seatbelt on. Aunt Becky pulled up to the front and I spotted Beverly and the rest of the group. I just kept my head down and twiddled my fingers. Beverly opened the car door, staring at me the entire time. 

The ride home was so awkward. Usually Beverly and I would be talking non-stop, but instead no one said a word. Thankfully, Aunt Becky didn’t comment on our behaviour, but she did make some worried glances our way.

***

(Richie’s POV)

“She did what?” Eddie shrieked. I slumped in the couch, thinking of all the possible ways I could’ve made her mad. I didn’t stop crying after that call. I didn’t even go to school, and of course my parents didn’t care. Bill and Eddie came over after they noticed I wasn’t in school today.

“Rich, I’m so s-s-sorry.” Bill rubbed my back.

“I have no idea what I did,” I muttered.

“No one can understand girls, Richie. She probably blamed you for something you didn’t do.” Eddie explained.

“(Y/N) isn’t like that. She’s different.” I said, leaning back on the couch. The phone started to ring, immediately alerting us.

“Maybe, it’s (Y-Y/N),” Bill shrugged. I walked over to the phone and picked it up.

“Richie!” I heard Beverly say over the phone.

“Oh, hi Beverly.” I said in a monotoned voice.

“There’s something wrong with (Y/N). I thought you might know.” She said, worriedly.

“How would her ex-boyfriend know what’s wrong with her?” I huffed.

“Wait what? You guys broke up?” She said, genuinely surprised. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion.

“You didn’t know?”

“No! She’s been ignoring everyone today, even me.” She said matter-of-factly. My eyes widened in shock. I started to worry about her.

“What happened?” Eddie asked, standing close to listen in on the conversation.

“(Y/N)’s been ignoring everyone today.” I said, covering the speaking part of the phone so Beverly wouldn’t think I’m talking to her.

“Beverly, you need to talk to her.” I said over the phone. “You’re her best friend you have to do something.”

“I’ll try,” She sighed. “But what happens if I can’t get to her?”

“Then we’ll figure something out, we always do,” I smiled weakly. 

“Ok, bye Rich.” Beverly hung up and the line went dead.

“This is s-s-so unlike (Y/N).” Bill crossed his arms.

“Yea, she’d be doing her best to get people’s attention, not ignore them.” Eddie muttered. I tried to think of all the possible ways that would cause her to act this way. She didn’t seem in a bad mood when I called her last. Beverly didn’t mention the group they hang out with do anything bad. There was also-

Oh.

“Oh no,” I mumbled, catching the attention of Bill and Eddie.

“What?” Eddie asked.

“The last time (Y/N) was this mad was after the Neibolt incident and-“

“In the s-s-sewers.” Bill finished my sentence.

“You don’t think-“ Eddie’s voice trailed off.

“No, th-that can’t be p-p-possible, we killed IT.” Bill said worriedly.

“Bill, it’s either ‘that time of the month’ or this, and she’s never been this mad since that, even though she was under control.” I said matter-if-factly. “When she- y’know, I heard the tiniest bit of regret in her voice. What if IT still has an affect on her. Something like that just doesn’t go away.”

“But if what you’re saying is true, then couldn’t she have the power to-“ Eddie wheezed.

“Hurt s-someone.” Bill sighed.

“We need to get to Hawkins.” I spoke boldly.

“Woah! Slow your role there. We can’t just go to Hawkins.” Eddie said.

“We can’t just sit back and let IT get her again!” I exclaimed.

“We don’t even know for sure it’s IT doing this!” Eddie retorted.

“Eddie, it is a l-l-lead.” Bill shrugged. Eddie sighed, leaning against the wall.

“Can we at least take time to think about this?” Eddie asked.

“Fine,” I sighed.


	12. The Losers Take a Trip

  
*One Week Later*

(Y/N) POV

“Take that off,” IT appeared out of nowhere in my room. I slept on the couch, since Beverly and I’s fight. Guess who said I had to do that?

_“I thought we could tell each other everything!” Beverly tried to speak to (Y/N), but she continued to ignore anyone who talked to her._

_“(Y/N), you can’t just keep ignoring me!” She shouted._

_“You’re going to repeat what I say,” IT whispered into (Y/N) head. “Or Bevvie gets the chance to be a sacrifice. And if you show the slightest hint of emotion, I’ll notice.” (Y/N) twitched, discreetly trying to the voice out of her head._

_“(Y/N), is this about Richie? He told me you broke with him.”_

_“Why are we friends, Beverly?” (Y/N) said suddenly. This was all coming from IT, she was just repeating ITs words._

_“What?” She asked dumbfoundedly._

_“Why would I want to be friends.... with a slut,” (Y/N) huffed. Though, on the inside, she was heartbroken._

_“Are you joking? (Y/N) this isn’t funny,” Beverly’s voice cracked._

_“It was because of you, I was called one. It was your fault.” (Y/N) hated every word that came out of her mouth. Beverly was the first true friend she made, and now she’s saying all these hurtful things to her._

_“Are you okay?”_

_“I should be asking you. Or maybe Bill, he knew who you are yet he still kissed you. That losers club really is desperate.” (Y/N) chuckled evilly. Beverly just stood there with mouth hung open and tears brimming her eyes._

_“What’s wrong with you? What happened?” Beverly asked._

_“You don’t get it do you?” (Y/N) crossed her arms. “I’m embarrassed. I had to hang out with you, get you out of trouble. Sometimes, I regret stopping Gretta. Maybe I should’ve listened to her.”_

_“Well I didn’t ask you to protect me!” She snapped. Beverly was blinded with anger. She couldn’t believe the things coming out of her best friends mouth._

_“I didn’t ask to be friends with you!” (Y/N) spat. “The only reason I’m here with you was because the losers were worse.”_

_“The losers are your best friends!”_

_“Yet I still left them, but you’re just like them. You probably screwed them while I wasn’t around.” She scoffed._

_“Fuck you (Y/N),” Beverly gritted through her teeth._

_“You say that to other boys too? Fuck this I’m sleeping on the couch.” (Y/N) grabbed a pillow and her blanket, and walked downstairs._

_“Good job (Y/N)!” IT said in her head._

_“You happy now?” (Y/N) said out loud, but not loud enough for anyone to hear._

_“More than happy,” IT chuckled._

I cried silently to myself, after that fight. And now IT has to be an annoying asshole. Bev is my best friend and because of me, she’s in pain. I knew I had to, if Bev found out, she would probably get taken by IT, and I wasn’t letting that happen.

“Take what off,” I asked IT.

“Your necklace.” IT pointed to the necklace Richie gave me before he left. I had almost forgotten I had it on. This was the only piece I had of him left. I wasn’t just going to give it up

“Hell no,” I said doing homework on the couch.

“You know, Derry isn’t that far away from he-“ IT taunted me.

“Fine!” I unlocked the latch holding it together and gave it to the clown.

“This is a pretty necklace,” IT said before throwing it in the trash. I jumped at the sound of it hitting the garbage can. I wanted to cry, I just wanted curl into a ball and cry. I love that necklace.

“Just to let you know your sacrifice happens tomorrow. Until then-“

“Keep ignoring my friends, I know” I growled. I heard the door open revealing Aunt Becky and Beverly. There was a silent stare between us as they set the groceries down.

(Beverly’s POV)

I wanted to ignore her, I really did. But I couldn’t, part of me wanted to believe she was in bad mood, but she was so calm. She got up and went to the bathroom, probably trying to escape my gaze. There has to have been some reason as to why she acted the way she did. I needed to get away, but I didn’t know where to go.

Then I knew where I wanted to go.

“Aunt Becky, can I go to Mike’s place?” I asked her.

“Do you want to take-“ I shook my head before she finished.

“You’re going to have to talk sooner or later,” She tilted her head.

“I pick later,” I muttered.

“Fine, but only for awhile.” She sighed. I went outside, grabbed my bike, and rode to Mike’s house.

***

(Richie’s POV)

“Grab your bags, ladies. We’re going to Hawkins.” I told the group.

“Correction, you guys are going to Hawkins.” Stan pointed to me, Eddie and Bill.

“I still can’t believe your mom agreed Eddie.” Ben said loading one of Bill’s things into the bus.

“If she asks, I’m going on a school trip for health class.” Eddie said, causing the group to chuckle.

“So here’s the plan. Bill, Eddie, and I will get IT out of (Y/N) and kill IT. And you guys will stay here just in case IT comes here.” I explained.

“This is a horrible plan, we don’t even know if IT has taken her over.” Eddie scoffed.

“And if there’s small chance she is?” The whole group went silent after that. “That’s what I thought, now get on the bus, off and onward we go!”

“Shut the fuck up Richie!” Eddie huffed and took the steps into the bus. I had hoped that (Y/N) breaking up with me wasn’t actually her. It was just IT trying to get to me, (Y/N) would never do that. Once she’s free, maybe she could come back. Ok, I know that a long shot, but it couldn’t hurt to try.

All I have to do is wait.


	13. Sacrifice: Part 1

  
(Jane/El’s POV)

After careful planning over this week, I was finally able to sneak out. I made my way to Mike’s house to warn him about IT. I made sure to remind myself that I couldn’t be seen. I finally got to the two story building I called home for a week two years ago. I kept reminding myself that in a few more weeks, I would be free to go wherever I wanted to. I walked in through the basement entrance and saw Mike sitting on the couch talking to someone I couldn’t see. I smiled, forgetting how much I missed seeing him. I knocked on the door, catching his attention. He opened the door and his eyes widened.

“El,” he whispered, smiling at me. I immediately hugged him, feeling warm by his embrace as he hugged me back.

“Mike,” I said, muffled by my face pressing his chest. He’s gotten much more taller since I saw him last. His hair was definitely longer than before too.

“What are you doing here?” He asked as I walked in. I noticed a girl with red hair and freckles splattered over her face.

“Who’s she?” I asked him.

“I’m Beverly, Mike’s friend.” She stuck her hand for me to shake, and I hesitantly took it. I looked to Mike for confirmation.

“Friend?” I asked him.

“Friend,” he nodded. I turned back to Beverly, giving her a smile.

“Pretty, very pretty.” I told her, causing her to smile.

“You too,” she nodded.

“So, El, what happened?”

“Your friend is in danger.” I told him. I couldn’t remember her name, though.

“(Y/N)?” Beverly asked.

“I don’t know her name, but I saw her speaking to you a few days ago.” I pointed to Mike.

“That’s (Y/N).” Mike nodded.

“She’s in danger,” I repeated.

“A man in a weird suit is making her do things.” I tried to explain.

“Weird suit?” Beverly questioned.

“He looked really weird. Or IT looked really weird.” I said, causing Beverly’s eyes to widen.

“A clown.” She whispered.

“What’s a clown?” I asked. Beverly looked at me confused.

“It’s a person who dresses up to make kids laugh.” Mike explained. I nodded, though I still didn’t quite understand.

“But this clown wasn’t making kids laugh.” I shook my head. I looked to Beverly, who seemed really frightened.

“I know exactly who you’re talking about.” Beverly choked out. “What was IT making her do?”

“Hurt her friends.” I stated.

“That’s why she was ignoring us!” Mike exclaimed.

“And why she-“ Beverly was about to say, but cut herself off. “How is IT making her do this?”

“IT said IT will kill all her friends if she doesn’t sacrifice herself for something. And IT is part of mind flayer’s army.” I explained.

“The mind flayer?” Beverly and Mike said at the same time. Beverly seemed confused, but Mike knew exactly what I was talking about.

“She’s doing it tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?!” Beverly said, worriedly. “We need to stop her, there has to be a way!”

“I can do it,” I stated.

“El, I can’t ask you to do that.” Mike walked up to me.

“A friend of yours is friends with you, or uh-. Wait.” I stumbled on my words, I forgot the saying.

“A friend of yours is a friend of mine.” He chuckled. I nodded, giggling nervously.

“Um hey,” Beverly waved. “No offence, but how can you stop a demon clown. Mike and I sighed at the same time.

“I think I should tell you about this now.” Mike scratched the back of his neck.

“Long story,” I muttered.

***

“I’m really sorry about what they did to you El.” Beverly gave me an apologetic smile and rubbed my thigh.

“I’m safe now,” I nodded.

“Hey Beverly do you know where (Y/N) is now?” Mike asked.

“She’s at home.” She stated. “So, what’s the plan?” All of us stayed silent. I didn’t really have a plan, I thought I might just throw IT around a couple times, until IT decided to give up (Y/N). My thoughts were interrupted by very loud noises coming from outside. They sounded like a couple of boys.

“What the hell?” Beverly got up to the window and looked out it. Her eyes widened and she ran out the door.

“Richie! Bill! Eddie!” She shouted, causing the boys attention to turn to her.

“Beverly!” They all shouted, consuming her in one big bear hug. Mike and I walked out into sunlight, and my eyes widened, so did Mike’s

“Mike?” I looked between one of the three boys, and noticed one of them resembling Mike amazingly.

“Yea,” he stood there in awe.

“Why didn’t you tell me you had a look-a-like?”

“You mean a doppelgänger?”

“A what?”

“A person who looks like you that you’re not related too.” He explained.

“Oh,” I said nodding my head. Beverly came back to us with the new boys and I instantly found myself uncomfortable at the new people. Then I noticed Mike’s dooplemanger, or whatever was the guy I mistook for Mike in the dark place.

“I saw you,” I pointed to him.

“Ummm, hello to you too pretty lady.” He joked. Mike gripped my hand tight, pulling me closer to him.

“You must be Richie,” Mike said with agitation.

“Oh shit, is this your girlfriend? It must be because of your good looks,” he winked.

“Shut up Richie!” A smaller, fragile looking boy told Richie.

“My names Eddie,” he introduced himself.

“You can call him Eds.” Richie smiled. Eddie raised his middle finger at Richie.

“I’m B-Bill.” The taller boy answered. Why was he repeating letters really quickly?

“He has a stutter.” Beverly answered my thoughts. “Wait a minute, why are you here?”

“Richie couldn’t accept the fact that (Y/N) broke up with him, so he said that IT was controlling her.” Eddie explained.

“Rude much?” Richie scoffed.

“She is being controlled,” I confirmed.

“By that clown thingy.” Mike added.

“IT,” Bill muttered.

“Yes,” I nodded.

“I fucking knew it!” Richie exclaimed.

“Fucking?” I asked.

“Oh god,” Mike held his head in his hands shaking it profusely.

“Well, little lady, when a man and a woman-“

“SHUT UP RICHIE!” Everyone except me and Mike shouted.

“Sorry, he’s like this a lot.” Beverly apologized.

“I’ve noticed.” Mike muttered.

“Can we just go get (Y/N) now?” Beverly said, impatiently.

“We don’t have a plan yet.” I stated.

“We’ll make one,” Eddie shrugged.

“So what’s the plan?”


	14. Sacrifice: Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double update! Yay!

  
(Y/N) POV

Today was the day I would die. I’ve never thought about death. It wasn’t just something that would randomly pop up. But I knew it was something inevitable. I just didn’t think it would happen so soon. I didn’t really have a plan on what I wanted to be when I got older, but I wanted to grow older. I’m going to miss my friends, but knowing their okay makes me happy.

“Are you excited?” IT appeared in front of me. It was currently 6:00 am on Saturday. Obviously everyone was asleep and my back was hurting since I slept on the couch.

“Fuck off,” I grumbled. “Can I at least say goodbye?” IT thought for a second and gave an answer.

“No.” IT grabbed me and dragged me outside. “I can walk by myself asshole.” I snatched my hand away from his grip.

“You’re annoying.” IT growled.

“Well, you’re stuck with me until I’m dead.” I deadpanned. “Where are we going anyway?”

“Portal.”

“Can you be more specific?” I scoffed.

“No.”

“Fucking motherfucker,” I mumbled under my breath. We walked until we reached a forest. I hesitantly went inside as IT followed (*wink wink*) behind me.

***  
(Richie’s POV)

“She left,” Beverly said over the walkie talkie. Eddie, Bill, and I hid in slept in the garage, much to Eddie’s dismay. I woke up Bill and Eddie, who groaned and asked for five more minutes.

“C’mon you fuckers! Wake up!” I shook both them.

“I’m fucking up!” Eddie groggily said.

“(Y/N) just left.” I said putting on my sweater. Eddie and Bill weakly got up and we met with Beverly outside the house.

“Did you see where she went?” I asked Beverly, walking up to her.

“Towards the forest,” she pointed to said forest.

“Did she leave yet, over?” Mike asked through the walkie talkie.

“Yea, she went through the forest.” I said back to him.

“Can you be more specific, over?” Mike asked, annoyed by my vague answer.

“I’ll be more specific once we start moving out, now calm your ass down!” I shouted into it. “Let’s go.”

(Y/N) POV

“This is a tree, not a portal.” I pointed to the large oak tree.

“It’s _inside_ the oak tree.” IT rolled ITs eyes and banged on the tree causing it to open a small crack at the bottom. There were blue and green shining as the crack opened with a white cobwebby substance coming from every edge.

“Go.” IT pushed me toward it. I gave IT a death glare and crawled through the tiny space.

(Richie’s POV)

“Did she just go into a tree?” I asked, barely catching (Y/N) physically going into a tree. I didn’t catch her face and I desperately wanted to see her, kiss her, hold her, all that lovey dovey shit. We had met up with Mike and El halfway through the walk. And then holding hands made me jealous because I didn’t have (Y/N) to do that kind of stuff with me.

“Portal.” El stated.

“What?” Beverly asked.

“It’s a portal to the-“

“Upside down.” Mike finished her sentence.

“W-what’s The upside d-d-down?” Bill asked.

“It’s another dimension.” Mike stated. (Y/N) is in another dimension? This day just keeps getting weirder.

“What the fuck?” I looked at him in disbelief. “You know what? Nevermind, lets just go get her.” I waved it off and walked towards the tree (Y/N) went into. All of us stood in awe at the giant oak tree. White sticky cobwebs and a bluish-green substance covered the small entrance.

“S-s-so, who wants to g-go in?” Bill asked nervously.

“I’m going.” El and I said at the same time.

“So am I.” Beverly stated boldly.

“You three, stay here and keep a lookout.” I pointed to Bill, Mike, and Eddie.

“Fine by me,” Eddie backed away from the tree.

“What? No way, I’m going with El!” Mike protested. El took his hand and gave him an apologetic smile, which seemed to calm him down.

“I’ll be fine.” She said.

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

“I see we know who the dominant one in this couple is.” I smirked.

“Shut up Richie.” Mike rolled his eyes. So everyone is allowed to say that now?

“Let’s go.” Beverly went to crawl into the hole first, followed by El then me.

(Y/N) POV

This place was cold. Really cold. I noticed that this ‘world’ was like a dark side of the real world. It was so hard to breathe and everything was so dark, I could barely see anything.

“What is this place?” I asked.

“None of your business.” IT snapped.

“Ok, jeez.” I muttered. We walked awhile until we got into town. The Hawkins town, but at the same time it’s not. This place is completely deserted. Not a person in sight. We arrived at the library. The aisles were covered in a white sticky substance and bluish green globs. The back of the library held bodies. Dead bodies. I could only make out one person, maybe a teenager? She had orangey-red curls, and a freckled face, or what’s left of it. I think the glasses next to her was her own.

“I have the last one.” IT called out to no one. All of a sudden, the middle of the floor opened. IT touched my forehead, causing my vision to go black.

“What the fuck did you just do to me?” I asked.

“I’m no longer inside your head.” IT let out a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness, it was filled with _Richie! Richie! Bev! Bev! Losers! Losers!”_ IT said in a mocking tone. I feel like I was freed, but it also felt like a part of me left. I flipped IT, but yelped in pain when IT bent my finger backwards. I yanked my finger away from ITs grasp. I looked down and noticed a bunch of kids trembling from fear. They were covered in a wet substance that smelled like-

Greywater.

I examined each kid and I noticed some of them. Betty Ripson. Ed Corcaron. Patrick Hocksetter.

It was the missing kids.

“How are they-“

“The kids you saw floating weren’t real. If anyone ever found my place, they would give up hope when they saw them.” IT explained.

“So, you did it all for show?” I asked dumbfounded by this new discovery.

Wait.

I continued to scan the kids and saw a small little boy, holding a paper boat and missing right arm.

“Georgie?!” I called out to him. His head shot up in surprise and his eyes met mine.

“(Y/N)!” Georgie exclaimed. I jumped down in the hole, not caring I was trapping myself. I hugged him so tightly, knowing that he was alive.

“(Y/N), you’re crushing me.” He choked out. I apologized and let him go, but I was smiling so widely, something I haven’t done in a week.

“You’re okay.” I whispered into his ear. I glanced at his right arm that was no longer there. I could only assume this was the workings of IT, but why didn’t he bleed out?

“How come he didn’t bleed out?” I asked.

“He doesn’t want you dead.... yet.” IT grinned. Georgie trembled at the sight of the clown.

“Hiya Georgie! You enjoying your boat?” IT said in a childish tone. Georgie’s eyes watered with tears as he held on to me.

“Just stop! You’re scaring him.” I huffed and stroked his hair, trying to calm him down.

“It’s my thing.” IT walked away, letting the hole stay open.

“Where’s B-Bill?” Georgie hiccuped.

“He’s safe. We spent the whole summer looking for you.” I smiled sadly.

“Really?” He sniffed.

“Yea,” I nodded.

“(Y/N)?” Georgie looked up. “I want to go home. I want to be with mom and dad. And you, Bill, Stan, Eddie and Richie.”

I sighed, not knowing what to say. I didn’t want to give him false hope, but I didn’t want to break his heart either. Luckily, the sound of the door opening caught my attention. A girl with fairly long brown curls peaked over the whole. I thought I was the last sacrifice? Her eyes met mine and they widened.

“I found her!” She called out. Two sets of footsteps came towards her.

“(Y/N).” Richie breathed ou-

Wait.

“Richie?” I was shocked, happy, mad, depressed, worried and awestruck at the same time. Beverly approached the hole too and my emotions heightened.

“What the heck is going on?” I asked.

“Heck? Why’d you say heck? Hawkins has made you go sof-“ Richie cut himself off when he noticed the little boy beside me.

“Georgie?” His eyes widened.

“Richie!” Georgie stood up, smiling.

“Why are you guys here? And who is she?” I pointed to the girl.

“That’s El.” Beverly stated. Wait a minute.

“Mike’s girlfriend?” I asked. El waved and smiled awkwardly. “I’ve heard great things.” I smiled.

“We’re here to get you out.” Richie smiled. “Apparently, we’re here to get everyone out. Maybe, we’ll leave Patrick.” I glanced to Patrick who I forgot was there, and saw him weakly flip Richie off.

“Well, don’t just stand there get us out of here!”

 


	15. Cousins and Kisses

(Y/N) POV

We finally pulled the last kid out of the hole and walked out of the library. I was really excited to see Bill's reaction when he sees that Georgie is alive. As we were walking, Richie stopped me, letting the group go forward.

"What is it?" I asked him. He turned to me so we were facing each other and stayed silent.

"Why'd we stop?" I asked.

"We're still together right?" He finally spoke up.

"Of course, whatever I said wasn't me. Well, it was me, but I was being told what to do. I didn't want to do it, obviously, but like you get it right? They were going to hurt you and Bev and the losers an-" I was cut off by Richie pressing his lips to mine. Wow, I never knew how much I liked this feeling.

"I knew it! Stan owes me five bucks!" We broke apart abruptly when we heard Georgie squeal. I looked at him in disbelief.

"You bet on us Georgie?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Ummm, Maybe?" Georgie chuckled nervously. 

"Let's go, you little gremlin." I took Richie's hand and Georgie's to as we walked back into the forest.

***

I was right behind Georgie while we crawled through the hole. Once we got out, I saw the sun rising in the distance. That weird place was so dark, I felt like a flashlight was shine right in front of my face. I immediately saw Bill and Eddie and ran to hug them.

"You little fuckers." We broke away and saw the smile on their faces.

"You really need to stop trying to protect us." Eddie chuckled.

"Never." I smirked. "Ummm, Bill?"

"Y-yea?"

"There's someone who wants to see you." I smiled. He looked at me in confusion.

"Georgie!" I called out to him.

"Wait, wuh-wuh-wuh-what?" He looked at me, dumbfounded. Georgie came over to us holding his little paper boat.

"Billy!" Georgie exclaimed.

"Georgie." Bill's voice came out as barely a whisper and tears spilled from his eyes. Then he made the biggest smile I've ever seen. He picked Georgie up and swung him around, before hugging him as tightly as possible.

"I missed you so much." Georgie smiled.

"I never stopped looking for you." Bill smiled back and didn't even stutter.

"Thank you." They finally broke apart from the hug. "I shouldn't have gone back for the boat. I'm really sorry."

"It's not your fault. What m-m-matters now is that your b-b-back." He hugged him again, making smile at the two. 

"Where are we? Where are my parents?" Betty asked, looking around at the forest. Oh yea, we're in Hawkins. We're miles away from Derry.

"We need to get you all home. You're all in Hawkins." I explained to them. "Do you think you can take them on the bus?" I asked Bill and Eddie.

"I don't think we have enough money." Eddie said. 

"We can ask Hopper?" Mike suggested.

"Who?" I asked

"Hopper, he's the sheriff of the town." Mike explained.

"How are we going to explain this to him?" Eddie asked.

"He already knows about the upside down." El cut in.

"This town just keeps getting weirder." I sighed, crossing my arms.

"You can say that again." Richie scoffed

***

"You and I are having a talk when I get back." Hopper told El sternly. El gulped but sighed, nodding. Hopper, luckily, had a van big enough to hold the kids. Fortunately, Bill, Eddie, Richie and Georgie weren't going home for another week. They're parents thought they went on a school trip.

"Everyone's ready?" Hopper asked the children sitting in the van. They all nodded and Hopper sighed muttering "I don't get paid enough for this shit," and grunted, closing the car door. The sound of the engine filled my ears, as the van drove away.

"What do we do now?" Eddie asked.

"I don't know about you. But almost dying by the hands of a demon clown and mind flayer got me a little tired." I sighed, causing everyone to chuckle.

"I'm tired too, Billy." Georgie yawned.

"We c-could return back to your p-p-place (Y/N)?" Bill suggested.

"Yea, maybe we could call the rest of the party and hang out." Mike added.

"You never told us that was your group name?" Bev tilted her head in confusion.

"It never came up, I guess." Mike shrugged. "So, is this a plan?"

"We have to check in with Aunt Becky first." I said.

"Aunt Becky?" El asked, widening her eyes. Mike did the same.

"Yea, she's my aunt." Bev said nonchalantly.

"Does she have a sister named Terry Ives?" El asked.

"Yea." I nodded. I never really payed attention to Terry. She would usually just be muttering things like 'sunflower,' 'rainbow,' and a bunch of other weird shit. Becky told me to forget about it since it wasn't important.

"You two are-" Mike started.

"Cousins." El whispered.

"I'm so fucking confused." Richie cut in, rubbing his temple with his index and middle fingers.

"Richie!" I glared at him, nodding towards Georgie.

"Sorry," he muttered.

"Terry is my mama." El explained.

"Oh." Bev eyes widened. "Well um, hi cousin."

"Cousin." El stuck her hand out for Bev to shake. Bev accepted it smiling, though I could tell it was kind of awkward.

"Can we go now?" Georgie whined.

"Fine, fine." I chuckled, taking his hand and all of us walked over to our house.

***

(Beverly's POV)

Once we got home, Mike had called the party and invited them over to my house. Thankfully, Aunt Becky welcomed the group with open arms. That was something I was definitely not used to, considering my father was iffy about even (Y/N) coming over. Speaking of (Y/N), she collapsed on the couch with Georgie and Richie. Georgie was lying her thigh, curled up into a little ball. Richie had his arms wrapped around her stomach, while she rested her head on his shoulder. I smiled watching the trio sleep.

"They're a-a-adorable." I heard Bill say, as he walked over to me smiling.

"I can't believe it took them this long." I chuckled, remembering the constant pining Richie did in the past months.

"We bet on it tw-tw-twice. Stan actually owes Georgie five b-b-bucks." Bill smiled. We both laughed turning to each other. Our laughter died down as we just stared at each other. I still don't know how he feels about me. I mean, we kissed twice. But what did it mean?

"Bill, what are we?" I accidentally blurted out.

"Huh?" He asked, snapping out of a trance.

"What's going on? With us?" I rephrased the question.

"U-u-umm, i d-d-d-don't know." He said, stuttering more than usual.

"What do you want us to be?" I asked. God, I don't even know what I'm saying.

"I kind of really l-l-like you," he smiled awkwardly.

"I kind of really like you too." I chuckled.

"Really?" He lit up, causing me to smile and nod.

"Yea, I guess, I was unsure after we-uh, y'know." I fidgeted nervously.

"Yea, I was unsure too." He scratched the back of his head.

"So does this mean... you and I are-" I didn't know how to say this sentence.

"You guys are dating! Jeez, it's not that hard." Both of us snapped our head to (Y/N), who was wide awake.

"Were you listening this whole time?" I furrowed my eyebrows.

"I was." Georgie got up from (Y/N)'s lap, yawning.

"I thought you s-s-said you were t-tired." Bill rolled his eyes.

"He just can't tune out the sound of sweet romance." Richie said, groggily blinking his eyes and pulling (Y/N) closer to him.

"Jeez, Rich. Personal space?" (Y/N) scooted away from him.

"I am your personal space." He wiggled his eyebrows at her.

"That doesn't make any sense." She crossed her arms.

"Don't worry about it, babe."

"Oh god, do NOT call me that." She rolled her eyes.

"Darling?"

"No."

"Sweet thang?"

"No."

"Honey?"

"That's just horrible."

"Sexy?" He suggested, grinning. She cringed in disgust and punched him in the shoulder, earning a groan from Richie.

"I'll think of one later." He shrugged. (Y/N)'s eyes widened in shock and ran over to the trash can.

"What are you doing?" I asked. She ignored me and took out the necklace Richie gave her before we left.

"Why was that in the trash?" Richie asked, a little annoyed.

"IT told me to." She sighed. "I'm going to go clean this. (Y/N) went to the bathroom, while Mike came from the hallway (Y/N) just left in.

"The party is coming in 10 minutes." He announced. 

"Coolio." Richie said getting up and walking towards Mike. "How many more of them are there?"

"Four."

"What are we going to do when they come?" Eddie came from nowhere into the conversation. All of us stayed silent.

"Let's watch a movie." (Y/N) called out, walking into the room. 

"I'm down for that." I nodded and the rest copied the same action.

"Which m-m-movie?" Bill asked.

"We have the goonies?" (Y/N) suggested.

"Nah, I need a movie where I'll have a reason to cuddle with you." Richie winked at her.

"Keep talking like that and I'll be sitting on the opposite side of room." (Y/N) said sassily. We eventually decided on the goonies and Bill and I made popcorn. While we were waiting El walked up to us.

"More than friends?" She pointed between Bill and I. I glanced over at Bill who was very flustered with his face red as a tomato and it's safe to assume mine was too.

"Yes." I stated simply. "It's called dating."

"Da-ting." She repeated.

"Yea. You hold hands, do stuff together in a private manor, and kiss." I gave the best explanation I could muster.

"So, like Mike and I are dating?" She asked.

"Yea, he's your b-b-boyfriend." Bill nodded.

"Mike!" El called out. Mike ran towards with worry covering his face.

"Is something wrong?" He asked.

"No." El giggled.

"Oh, then what is it?"

"We are dating, right?" She asked. Mike's face turned completely red.

"Well, yea. But ONLY if you want to!" He chuckled nervously.

"I want to." El smiled. Mike smiled back and wrapped his arms around her. After they broke apart, El was on her tip toes trying to get closer to him. 

"El, what are you doing?" Mike looked at her in confusion.

"I'm trying to kiss you, your too tall." She pouted. Mike chuckled and cupped her cheeks, bringing her close to him and closing the space between them.

"That's our cue to leave." I pushed Bill to get the popcorn from the microwave.

"No Richie! I'm not making out with you!" We heard (Y/N) shout from the living room.

"What if the movie gets boring?" Richie question.

"It's the flipping Goonies! How do you get bored?" She said matter-of-factly.

"Ok, well, what about after?"

"I will make out with you when Chunk dies."

"Chunk doesn't die!" Richie huffed.

"Exactly!" 

"Guys! I don't want to these kinds of problems." Georgie said. Mike and El looking towards the living room, while Bill and I were laughing out loud.

"Are they always like that?" Mike asked.

"Basically." Bill stated.

"Oh shut up Bill, we both know I get more action then you." Richie peeked his head through the doorway.

"Oh shut up Richie." (Y/N) peeked her head through the same doorway.

"Are you s-s-sure about that Rich?" Bill asked, glancing between Richie and I.

"Very." Richie nodded. Before I knew what was happening, Bill grabbed my waist and smashed our lips together. Holy shit, this felt good. It was like butterflies travelled down my body. We were like this for 3 seconds until he broke the kiss. My face was really hot, so I'm pretty sure I was full on red.

"Ummm, thanks for that?" I breathed out.

"No problem," he smiled.

"Well, I'm at a lost for words." Richie leaned against the door frame. "Ha! No I'm not. You win this time Billiam." He disappeared into the living room with (Y/N) following.

"Now we definitely have to make out." Richie said to her.

"Richie, I swear to god, I will throw you off the roof of this house." She threatened. This time all of us laughed at the couple. The bell rang, alerting me to go to the front door. The entrance revealed Dustin, Lucas, Max and Will.

"Hey Beverly!" Max smiled, waving at me. 

"Hey! Come in, we're just about to start." I gestured for them to come in. They took off their shoes and followed me into the living room. I immediately noticed El glaring at Max which made her uncomfortable. Max instinctively went closer to Lucas, who noticed her demeanour.

"Ok, we need to settle this." Lucas spoke up. Before anyone could speak up the doorbell rang again. I went to the front door and opened it.

"Hey loser."


	16. A Party of Losers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A chapter of fun

(Y/N) POV

I immediately snapped my head towards the door after hearing the one and only-

“Stanley Uris?” I walked towards the door, standing next to Bev. But not only was Stan there, Mike and Ben were too.

“Ben! Mike!” I exclaimed and pulled all of them in for a group hug.

“What are you guys doing here?” I asked as they walked into the house.

“Derry is fucking boring.” Mike shrugged.

“Yeah, it got really dull after you guys left.” Ben added.

“Is that the rest of the Losers club I hear?” Richie shrieked and came running towards us. “What the frickity frack are you guys doing here?”

“Apparently, Derry isn’t very fun without the full losers club.” Bev smiled, closing the front door.

“Oh that makes sense,” Richie chuckled.

“Fuck off, Richie.” Stan grumbled.

“Language, Stan!” I pretended to be shocked.

“What? You swear more than an-“ Stan was cut off when Georgie came into the room screaming Stan’s name.

“Georgie?” He looked at the little boy in disbelief.

“Stanley!” Georgie yelled and barrelled towards Stan jumping into his arms. Stan just chuckled with an awestruck look on his face, while holding Georgie tightly.

“How did you find him?” Stan asked.

“Long story, Stan the man.” Richie sighed.

“C’mon, it’s time for the losers to meet the party.” I gestured for them to follow me into the living room.

“Stan? Ben? Mike?” Eddie questioned.

“What’s up?” Mike nodded.

“What are you guys d-d-doing here?” Bill asked.

“Derry is boring, can we move on now?” I asked impatiently.

“Jeez, ok. It was a question.” Eddie muttered.

“Sorry, Eds.” I have an apologetic smile.

“It’s okay.” He waved it off.

“Why does she get to call you Eds?” Richie questioned.

“Because she isn’t annoying.” Eddie said sassily.

“Well then,” Richie pretended to be offended.

“Anyway, what’s happening here?” I changed the subject.

“A therapy session apparently.” Dustin sighed.

“What’s the problem?” Bev asked.

“The curly headed chick doesn’t like the redhead.” Richie shrugged.

“I have a name, y’know!” Max furrowed her eyebrows.

“I don’t know it,” Richie shrugged again. Max sighed and leaned back into the couch.

“El, why don’t you like Max, anyway?” Will asked.

“She tried to replace me.” El glared at her. It looked like she could snap Max’s neck at any second. 

“I’m not trying to replace you!” Max scoffed.

“Then why were you trying to impress Mike?” El asked.

“What?” Max and Mike shouted.

“When did that happen?” Mike asked.

“This is so juicy.” Richie smirked, causing everyone to shout “Shut up Richie,” in various ways.

“In the gym, with her wheely thingy.” El said matter-of-factly.

“You mean a skateboard?” Lucas questioned.

“Whatever.” El rolled her eyes. Max looked like she was trying to think of something, until her eyes widened.

“So, you’re the one who pulled my skateboard!” She gasped. El bit her lip, looking down.

“El, Max wasn’t trying to impress me to be with me. She was trying to impress me to be in the party.” Mike explained.

“What?” El’s eyes widened.

“El, I would never try to replace you. I just didn’t have any friends and I wanted to hang out with some people even when I didn’t want to admit it. They offered and I accepted. They wouldn’t even tell me about you, I didn’t know I was replacing you.” Max glared at Mike.

“Hey! I told you baby steps.” Mike threw his hands up in defeat.

“So, you’re not replacing me?” El questioned.

“No,” Max shook her head.

“I’m sorry.” El smiled awkwardly.

“It’s okay, I get it.” Max waved it off.

“So, Everyone is good now?” Bev asked, to which they both nodded. “Can we watch the goonies now?”

“Wow Bev, was that the only thing in your mind during this whole conversation?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Yes and no?”

“That’s not a straight answer.” I smirked.

“I’d like to watch the goonies!” Dustin spoke up.

“I’m with boy curls over there.” Richie nodded towards Dustin.

“When will you learn our names?” Dustin questioned.

“When Eddie’s Mom learns to let go of me, and (Y/N) agrees to make out with me during the movie.” Richie wiggles his eyebrows at me.

“Eddie, we’re making a plan to throw Richie in a dumpster.” I smirked at Eddie.

“I’m down with that. Hey Dustin, where’s a really filthy dumpster.” Eddie said getting up.

“Our School dumpster, definitely.” Dustin nodded.

“Can I watch?” Mike W. added.

“Count me in, boy with the same name as me.” Mike H. grinned.

“Wait, so I have the face of him and the name of him?” Mike pointed towards Richie and Mike.

“Are we just going to ignore the fact that you guys threaten to throw me in a dumpster?” Richie questioned.

“A filthy dumpster.” Eddie smiled.

“I’d like to see that!” Georgie raised up his hand.

“Not you too, Georgie.” Richie fake-gasped.

“Sorry Richard, your outnumbered.” Bev shrugged.

“What did you just call me?”

“It’s your f-f-full name, is it not?” Bill cut in.

“How about we just watch the goonies?” Ben spoke up.

“I agree with Ben!” Richie smiled.

“This is an interesting conversation though.” Stan smirked.

“It really is.” Max nodded.

“Goonies, it is!” Richie ignored Stan and Max. Everyone chuckled and took their seats. I smiled even more when I heard the conversation between Max and El from behind me.

“Hey, El, do you want to sit next to me?” Max asked.

“Yes.” I felt the couch shift as Max made room for El with Mike W. of course, sitting next to her. 

“Can we start over?” El asked.

“What do you mean?” 

“When I walked past you last time, it was not nice. Can we do it again?” El explained.

“Oh um, ok.” Max said with a smile. She stuck out her hand. “Hi, I’m Max. You must be Eleven, I heard a lot of great things about you.”

El accepted the handshake and smiled. “Nice to meet you Max, you seem really cool.” The both chuckled after letting go of each other’s hand.

“Can you teach me how to ride your board-thingy?” El asked.

“Skateboard?” Max raised an eyebrow.

“Yea, whatever.” El shrugged.

“Sure,” Max chuckled. “That’d be really cool.

“Can you teach me too?” Dustin cut in.

“Dustin! They were having a moment!” I glared at him.

“Sorry, But skateboarding is really cool.” Dustin put his hands up in defeat. El and Max chuckled once again and Max held out her arm. El slid her arm through Max’s and they linked. El, then rested her head on Mike’s shoulder, making Mike smile and rest his head on top of hers. It made me want to do the same.

“Richard, get over here.” I called Richie over who still looked annoyed. He rolled his eyes but still came over.

“Don’t give me that flipping pouty face, you baby.” I rolled my eyes. 

“There’s only one thing you need to do.” A smirk started to form on his face. I sighed, knowing what he wanted. I can’t believe I’m dating this kid. 

“You’re an idiot.” I smiled.

“I’m your idiot.”

“That was the most cringiest thing you’ve ever said, and that’s saying something.” I grimaced, but smiled. I grabbed his collar and smashed our lips together. I smiled through the kiss as I heard groans and complains from the group.

“Disgusting.”

“I’m too young for this.”

“Get a room.”

“The amount of diseases you guys could be transferring is staggering.” I knew immediately that came from Eddie. But, I tuned them out. It was only me and Richie. Me and my stupid fucking trashmouth sucking face. After a full ten seconds we pulled away. I opened my eyes to see Richie grinning like an idiot.

“You happy now?” I asked him.

“Oh yea, definitely.” He nodded and put his arm around me, as I rested my head on his shoulder. The movie scene where Chuck spills his drink staring at the car chase came on and everyone started laughing. 

“Chunk actually kind of reminds me of you.” Lucas chuckled and pointed at Dustin.

“I’m highly offended.” Dustin shook his head, but you could tell he was trying to hide a smile. I looked around at the group. Bev was lying down on Bill’s thigh, while Georgie was on the other side of him, smiling wildly. Stan, Eddie, and Will were whispering amongst themselves, while Mike H. and Dustin were focusing intently on the movie. Max and Lucas had hogged the popcorn. Stuffing it into their mouths and laughing. I could see them discreetly holding hands, but it didn’t get past me. Max and El were still linking arms, while El and Mike W. were giggling and whispering to each other. As for Richie, he was still feeding me pet names to use.

“How about sweet cheeks?”

“What the fuck, Richard. That’s so fucking weird.” I cringed.

“Princess?”

“No.”

“Sweetie?”

“Definitely not.”

“Darlings.”

“Really?” 

“Trashmouthnette.”

“What?” I looked at him in disbelief.

“Well, im the boy trashmouth and you’re the girl trashmouth.” He explained.

“That’s really stupid.” I chuckled.

“I got it!” He snapped his finger.

“What is it?” I sighed.

“Love.” He smiled.

“Why?”

“It’s like Eddie’s cast, when you changed the word.” He shrugged. That’s actually not that bad.

“Ok.” I stated.

“Really?” He lit up.

“Well, Yea. In comparison to the others this one is a masterpiece.” I smirked.

“Ok, love.” He wiggled his eyebrows. 

Who knew how lucky I was to have this group of friends?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story will be going on a one to two week hiatus, so I can write the second half of the story. Luckily I already started and so far I’ve gone up to chapter 21. Things definitely get stranger. (See what I did there?). Anyway, see you guys in a couple weeks.


	17. Visions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m back baby.

**(Y/N) POV**

**EVERYONE HAD FALLEN ASLEEP AT THE END** of the movie, except me. I just loved the Goonies too much to miss a second of the film. I couldn’t move because Richie had his arms wrapped around my waist and had his head leaning on my shoulder. It was admittedly cute to see how he looked when he was sleeping. Yes, that sounds creepy but I can’t help it. I carefully leaned my head back on the couch between Max’s and El’s legs where the small open spaces was. But before I could even close my eyes, my vision went black.

What the fuck?

My vision came back, but I wasn’t in the living room anymore. It was that dark place. I didn’t fully feel I was there though. It kind of felt I was there mentally more than physically. It was really weird. A large booming sound startled me as I ‘moved’ toward the library. Everything looked the same as I saw it, except the kids were gone from the whole.

“YOU HAD ONE JOB!” A large deep voice shouted, startling me a bit.

“It was the telekinetic girl and two other kids that got them out.” Another voice that sounded like....

IT?

IT sounded... scared. Terrified even. Like IT was about to crumble at any second.

“You mean the same girl that closed the gate?” The deep voice growled. My vision started moving up and down, like it was... nodding. Like it was someone’s point of view.

“How could you let her go? She’s a threat to this plan, she could ruin everything.” The deep voice sounded annoyed.

“She’s too strong for me.”

“Ah yes! Because you were beaten by a bunch of little babies with baseball bats and long pipes!” I knew immediately this thing was talking about us.

“They’re stronger than they lo-“ IT tried to speak until the deep voice cut IT off.

“I don’t need your excuses!” The thing growled. “We need a new plan. If we want to expand this dimension, we need to do it now.” The place I went to was another dimension?! Holy shit, that’s...

Well, I don’t know if I should be happily surprised or frightened. “The dogs are hungry, they need to feed. Maybe I can turn the girl...”

“Would you like me to do that for you?” IT asked.

“The only thing you will be doing is getting rid of those kids.” The voice got louder. “And I’m talking about all of them, even those kids who disrupted those plans last year.” Who were those kids?

“Everything has gone according to plan since 1908, I don’t know why it’s falling apart now.” The voice groaned. 1908, that date is so familiar.

“It’ll work out.” IT stated.

“Next thing you know that despicable turtle will come.” Turtle? The vision shuddered. I had finally realized this was ITs point of view. Why was IT afraid of a turtle? And also, what the fuck does a turtle have to do with any of this? The only thing I got from all of this is this thing, whatever it is, is mad. And who was this telekinetic girl? And those kids who destroyed these plans. What’s so special about the date 1908? It keeps coming to my head, but I keep forgetting it.

Maybe if I just concentrate hard enough I’ll remember the date-

“(Y/N)!” A voice called out, taking me back to reality. I ‘woke up’ in the living room with the whole group staring at me. Richie was closest with fear and worry flashed upon his face.

“What happened?” I asked. They all looked at each other and me worriedly.

“(Y/N),” Bev breathed out. “Your eyes were completely black, there was nothing but black.”

“What?” Was that what I looked like while I was having that... whatever it was.

“You know what guys? Just fan out, give her space.” Richie fanned out everybody, causing them to move back.

“Guys... I saw something.” I blinked.

“Well no shit,” Dustin sighed.

“I don’t think IT is completely gone from me. It’s like I can see through him.” I tried to explain. Needless to say, they all looked at me dumbfounded. “I can see what IT sees.” I rephrased.

“Awesome.” Dustin whispered.

“Not awesome,” Eddie shook his head.

“What did you s-s-see?” Bill asked.

“IT was talking to someone or something about a plan. I think it has to do with expanding their dimension.” I talked slowly.

“Your joking.” Stan looked at me in disbelief, but you could tell he was mortified.

“Stan, based on everything we have experienced, I have no problem believing this.” Ben scoffed.

“There was stuff about a telekinetic girl, and us,” I pointed to all the losers. “And another group of kids who apparently disrupted their plans a year ago.”

“That must be us!” Mike exclaimed. “And that thing is talking about El.”

“Woah woah! El has powers?” My mouth hung open.

“Yea,” Bev shrugged. “I haven’t seen her in action though.”

“You knew?”

“Oh, I forgot to tell you.” Bev smiled awkwardly.

“Anyway,” I said, but not before sending a glare in Bev’s direction. “El is in danger. The thing said it wanted to turn her.”

“Guys, it’s the mind flayer.” Lucas mumbled.

“The what?” I raised an eyebrow.

“The mind flayer!” He exclaimed louder.

“It makes sense.” Max’s eyes widened.

“It wants El as part of its army.” Dustin snapped his fingers.

“Back it up for a second!” Eddie cut in. “So let me get this straight. IT is apart of an army and the ‘mind flayer’ wants El apart of its army so they can take over this world. And it also wants to get rid of all of us?” Eddie explained.

“Pretty much yea,” I nodded.

“How the hell did we get dragged into this?” Eddie wheezed.

“How does this mind flayer thing plan on doing this?” Mike H. asked.

“That I don’t particularly know, all I know is the mind flayer is after El and IT is after us.” I explained. “There’s also something about a turtle and the year 1908.” I added.

“That was the first sighting of IT!” Ben exclaimed. That’s why the date was so familiar!

“A turtle?” Will cut in.

“Yes, turtle, I have no idea what it means. But, IT is afraid of the turtle.” I nodded.

“Ok then let’s get a turtle!” Richie exclaimed.

“We can’t just get a random turtle. This must be a special turtle.” Mike W. said matter-of-factly.

“Do you know anything about it?” Lucas asked me.

“No, they just mentioned it.” I shrugged.

“Do you think you could go back?” El asked.

“Nope! She’s not doing that.” Richie cut in.

“Why not?” I tilted my head in confusion. “They can’t see me, they don’t know I’m listening in.”

“Seriously (Y/N)? After all you’ve been through, you still want to be this spy.” Richie looked at me in disbelief.

“I think she should. I was a spy last year, but I couldn’t control it. At least she can, she can be an advantage.” Will spoke up.

“Shut it, other Eddie.” Richie glared at Will.

“You have got to be kidding me.” I heard Will mumble. Eddie seemed to hear him because he uttered the words “you’re telling me.”

“Richie, Will is right, I’m an advantage.” I said matter-of-factly.

“And if you get caught?” Richie questioned.  
I’m   
“I won’t, they didn’t even notice!” I pleaded.

“No, this is the last time that happens to you. We have enough information anyway.” Richie stated. He sounded like an overprotective father who wouldn’t his daughter leave the house because her dress was 1 inch above the knee. I understood why he was being like this, but this is a life or death situation. We need all the information we can get to stop this.

“Richie, c’mon, wouldn’t you do this even fo-“ I was about to speak before he cut me off.

“Promise me,” he took my hands in his with pleading eyes. “Promise me, your not going to do that again.”

I rolled my eyes and groaned at his behaviour, but he felt the need to cut me off again. “And! If it does you tell somebody to help you.” Richie looked me in the eye, giving the Dad face. Y’know that face your Dad gives you when you do something wrong and he tells you not to do it again.

“Promise?” He raised an eyebrow. I looked around to the others who were giving me looks telling me to reject what he’s saying. And I wanted to agree with them, I desperately wanted to say no. But it was Richie, how could I say no? What happens is I say no? What happens if I get good information?

“Fine.”


	18. Making a Plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m in a bad mood and brightening up someone else’s day gets me in a good mood so here is the next chapter.

**(Y/N) POV**

**RICHIE GAVE ME A SATISFIED LOOK, WHILE THE REST OF THE GROUP** looked pretty annoyed scattering back to their seats. I knew I had to say yes, but it would be very hard to keep it secret that I was still doing it.

Of course I’m still doing it! I know I promised wouldn’t, but information won’t just come on it’s own. I’m the only and best resource we have right now and I’m not stopping just because someone is worried about me. Even if it is Richie.

“So, how do we stop this?” El spoke up. I looked around the room and everyone had unsure faces. Hell, even I don’t know what to do about this.

“We could beat IT until IT dies.” Richie suggested.

“That obviously didn’t work.” Eddie rolled his eyes.

“What about that turtle?” Mike H. shrugged.

“How are we supposed to find a supernatural turtle?” Stan asked.

“How do you know it’s supernatural?” Max raised an eyebrow.

“Do you seriously think that their just afraid of a normal turtle?” Stan countered.

“Ben, do you think you can research something about it?” Bev suggested.

“I can try,” he shrugged. “But I can’t go alone.”

“Dustin, you go with him.” Lucas cut in.

“I currently have 10 books out right now, and their overdue.” He chuckled nervously.

“Did you not give the books you were researching about Dart back?” Max tilted her head.

“Who’s Dart?” I asked.

“He was a creature from the upside down.” Mike W. explained.

“You brought a creature from the upside down here?” Eddie gagged. “Do you know the number of infections you could’ve gotten? I’m surprised you weren’t convulsing on the ground! Were you convulsing on the ground?” Eddie rambled.

“No?” Dustin looked at Eddie like he was a crazy person. Eddie started to wheeze, and went to his bag, probably to get his inhaler.

“Anyway, Ben, do you think you help Dustin find his books?” Lucas asked.

“Yea, sure. So, is this part one of the plan?” Ben nodded.

“Yea,” El nodded.

“Wait, b-b-but how do you think the mind flayer will open the g-guh-gate?” Bill cut in.

“The lab.” El looked down. I saw Bev look at her in pity which made me kind of confused.

“What lab?” I asked.

“Hawkins lab. Scary place.” Will shuddered.

“Fucking great,” I muttered, sighing and rubbing my temple.

“The lab is closed now though.” Max said.

“Maybe, one day we could break in and make sure the gate stays closed.” El said boldly.

“We don’t even know for sure that they want to open the gate in the lab.” Bev crosses her arms.

“It was the biggest one when it was opened.” El shrugged.

“Ok, well we can’t do this on our own. Is hopper the only adult who knows about this?” Eddie questioned after taking a hit from his inhaler.

“We could tell Joyce, Nancy, Jonathon-“ Mike W. was listing before Dustin cut him off.

“We need to tell Steve too.” Dustin smiled.

“I was going to say Steve before you rudely interrupted me.” Mike glared at him.

“Who’s Steve?” I asked. The party sent smirks our way which just made me more confused.

 


	19. Steve Harrington

**(Y/N) POV**

**AS I OPENED THE DOOR, I WAS MET WITH THE COOLEST LOOKING** angel I’ve ever seen. An older teenage boy stood outside my door, running a hair through the most luscious hair I’ve ever seen. He wore sunglasses over his eyes and was spinning his car keys around his index finger.

“You must be Steve.” I blurted out, getting a little flustered.

“Yeah, Dustin called me here. Said something about a turtle?” He questioned.

“Oh uh, yea, ummm-come in.” I stammered, wondering why I was acting like this. I mean, the guy’s almost half my age. Steve walked past me, trailing his head around the house with a approving and disapproving looks.

“Nice house.” He called out, walking into the living room.

“Thanks!” I called back awkwardly, scratching the back of my head and contemplating why I had just said what I said. I snapped out of my thoughts and closed the front door, before following Steve into the living room.

“So, this is Steve.” I heard Dustin say as I walked into the room. I glanced at Bev who had the look I’m pretty sure I did when I had first seen the older teenager. Her cheeks flushed redder than her hair as she walked up to him and stuck out her hand.

“I’m Beverly.” She smiled awkwardly, blatantly staring at him which seemed to creep him out.

“And I’m B-B-Bill.” Bill protectively slid his arm around Bev’s waist pulling her closer to him which snapped her out of her trance.

“Yeah, good to know. Who are they?” Steve pointed to the losers while looking at the party, specifically Dustin.

“This is the losers club.” Dustin introduced us, using jazz hands to make it more dramatic.

“You call yourselves the losers club? On purpose?” Steve raised an eyebrow, leaning against the wall and even seemed to make that look cool.

“It’s becaus-“

“We don’t know why they picked the name.” I cut Richie off, walking in front of him. I was in such a trance, I didn’t even notice Richie’s jealous stare between the both of us.

“Ok,” Steve trailed off on the word, popping off the wall. “So, why am I here?”

“We need help getting Dustin’s books and researching.” Lucas explained, giving Dustin an ‘you really are stupid’ glare.

“That’s it? I thought I’d actually do something that mattered.” Steve scoffed, running his hand through his amazing hair, yet again.

“Hey! This does matter, we’re talking life or death shit here.” Dustin demanded, walking up to Steve and poking his chest. Steve then gave him a glare, intimidating him, probably because he touched him. “Sorry.” Dustin muttered, taking a step back.

“Is this about that mind foogler thing again?” Steve put two hands on each hip, jutting out one to the side and tilting his head.

“Mind flayer.” Dustin corrected.

“Whatever.”

“And yes it is, we need to research first, then you’ll get the chance to hit something with your nail bat.” Dustin waved him off.

“What’s a nail bat?” I asked, furrowing my eyebrows.

“So, basically Will’s brother, Jonathan, dug nails into the edge of this bat and Steve used it to kill the demogorgan.” Lucas explained with enthusiasm.

“The monster from dungeons and dragons?” Ben questioned, raising his eyebrows.

“It’s not actually called the demogorgan, but we just use it to identify what we’re dealing with.” Mike W. answered.

“Anyway!” Steve cut in. “How long will this book-finding and researching take?” He asked, crossing his arms. If I’m being honest, he kind of looked like a mom, I couldn’t help but chuckle softly to myself.

“It shouldn’t take that long.” Ben shrugged, grabbing his things.

“Ok fine, but not too long. I got an interview later today.” Steve said, walking towards the front door.

“Ummm, we’re not going today, we’re going tomorrow.” Dustin chuckled nervously to himself.

“So, why did you call me here?” Steve asked with anger.

“To tell you, see now you know. Yay.” Dustin tried to be enthusiastic. Steve just groaned and marched towards the door.

“Does that mean you’ll be there?” Dustin called out, but the door closed without Steve giving an answer. “He’ll be there.” Dustin smiled, nodding.

“Are you done staring at Mr. Cool over there?” Richie caught my attention, making me turn around and see his annoyed face.

“So you admit he’s cool?” I raised an eyebrow, smirking and crossing my arms with my hip jutted out to the side.

“Of course he’s cool! Why do you think I’m mad?” He asked. Maybe it was the way he said his sentence or how how he looked when he said it, but I couldn’t help but think how cute he looked. I just chuckled and walked up to him, punching his cheek and shaking his head sighed to side.

“You’re adorable.” I smiled, placing a kiss on the cheek I wasn’t pinching. I then walked away, getting one last glance at his flustered face.

“Wait a minute! This conversation isn’t over (Y/N)!”

 


	20. Broken Hearts Club

**  
(Dustin’s POV)**

**BEN, STEVE AND I SPENT HOURS IN THE LIBRARY LOOKING** for anything about supernatural entities and it was fucking boring. If I’m being honest, a girl was on my mind. A girl I couldn’t have because she was already taken. I guess, I’m not lucky when it comes girls. Steve definitely helps me out, but sometimes he just gives the wrong advice. Or maybe, I’m taking the advice the wrong way. I sighed and flipped a page, just glancing at the words.

“Hey kid, you okay?” Steve asked me with his eyes still glued to the page. I could tell he didn’t know what he was reading and was only pretending to, but at least he was trying.

“Just lady troubles.” I shrugged. Ben had looked up from some Stephen King book he was reading, because he had looked through 5 books already and found nothing.

“I thought you were over Max?” Steve raised a eyebrow.

“It’s not Max.” I shook my head. I got over Max a few months after the snowball. I had realized that Lucas and Max were actually really good together even though they didn’t realize it themselves.

“Who is it then?” Steve leaned forward in his chair, trying to listen intently.

“Her name is (Y/N).” I rested my head on the palm of my hand. I know I should’ve stopped after she said she had a boyfriend, but I just couldn’t. The first time I saw her was like seeing an angel for the first time. There’s also the fact that she’s brave as shit. And when she ignored us, it was just the most gut-wrenching thing to experience. Ben seemed to let out a sigh of relief.

“You like someone too?” I asked Ben who just nodded.

“Yea, I do. But she’s with someone else. She likes him and he likes her.” Ben shrugged and went back to his book.

“Who?” Steve asked.

“Beverly.” Ben muttered.

“So, both of them are taken?” Steve asked. We both nodded. Wow, we are pathetic.

“Looks like we got a broken hearts club here.” Steve snorted, leaning back in his chair and running his fingers through his soft hair. Seriously his hair is so nice.

“What about you?” Ben nodded his head toward Steve.

“She’s a taken girl. And I’m okay with it. That’s how much I love her.” Steve said. He was trying to sound like he doesn’t care, but I could tell he was hurt.

“She doesn’t deserve you Steve.” I patted his shoulder.

“Yea, thanks kid.” Steve scoffed, chuckling with his head held down. “Who knows guys, maybe they’ll find out who they’re missing. And if they don’t. We’ll find somebody.” He waved us off and we went back to work. Ben took another book from the pile, after he got bored. He was about to open it when it looked like a thought came to his head.

“Wait a minute.” He muttered.

“What? What is it?” Steve looked up from his book.

“There was that one book I read about a telepathic turtle, I forgot the author, but maybe that’s the kind we’re dealing with.” Ben explained.

“I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that a goddamn turtle is an enemy to a giant tentacle creature. Now you’re telling me that this turtle is telepathic?” Steve groaned.

“Think about it. When you told us about Will, you said the mind flayer got inside his head. Wouldn’t it makes sense that it could be afraid of something that would get inside the mind flayer’s head?” Ben started to smile, probably because he was starting to catch on. It made sense too.

“That’s why it wants to turn El to his army.” My eyes widened.

“That girl still scares me.” Steve shuddered.

“Because if she’s against the mind flayer, she can beat him.” Ben smiled wider, ignoring Steve’s comment.

“We need to tell the others,” I said, grabbing my bag and putting the book back in the pile.

“Where are the others?” Steve asked.

“Bill, Eddie, Beverly, Max and Lucas are with Will at his house. They’re trying to see if they can get some information about the upside down from him.” Ben slung his backpack over his shoulder.

“(Y/N), Richie, Mike H., Mike W., El, Stan, and Bill’s little brother are at Mike W.’s house trying to figure out another way to get information from the mind flayer without using (Y/N).” I said, pushing in the chair and walking toward the exit.

“Where do you want to go?” Steve ran a hand through his hair. I said Mike’s house, but Ben said Will’s house. Steve chuckled, recognizing that we wanted to be closer to the girl we liked.

“I’ll drop you guys off at both places, how about that?” Steve suggested.

“Yes, that would be ideal.” I scratched the back of my neck.


	21. A Secret

**(Y/N) POV**

**WE COULDN’T COME UP WITH ANYTHING.**

**ANYTHING.**

None of us could think of a way to get more information about the upside down. We tried using Mike’s dungeons and dragons game, but we only got information on stuff we already know. The only new piece of information we got was from Dustin about the turtle being telepathic.

“Hey El, what about using sensory deprivation?” Mike suggested.

“I wouldn’t know what I’d be looking for.” She shrugged, munching on an eggo waffle. She was really into that waffle.

“You’d be looking for their plan.” Richie cut in.

“Their’s also the fact that I can actually talk to the people or things I see. Which means they could catch me.” El added.

“Richie, seriously, maybe I sh-“ I tried to bring up the fact I could actually do something about it, but I was cut off when he gave me a death stare. I closed my mouth and slumped on the couch. Then I had an idea.

“I’m going to use the bathroom.” I shot up from the couch and walked over to the room a few steps away from me. I closed and locked the door, so no one could come in. I closed the toilet seat and sat on it, trying to think of ways to get my mind back to ITs mind. Maybe, I should just relax myself and concentrate. Yea, that sounds doable. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, then I opened my eyes.

But everything was completely black.

My vision came back and I was in a room full of dogs? But not regular dogs. These dogs had like flowers for heads, and they weren’t pretty flowers. They were demonic flowers with sharp rows of teeth in each pedal. My or ITs point of view moved to a shadowy figure. The figure looked haunting, like if it came out and you’d look at it you’d die.

“I’ll turn the girl tonight, she’ll open the gate, and we can start from there.” The figure gestured. The girl must be El, it had to be. I needed to tell her about this. The vision kept going blurry, like one second I was out then I was back in. It was really hard to maintain, considering I didn’t really know what I was doing.

“How do you plan on doing that?”

“Nothing to worry about, just stick to the plan.” The figure said. The point of view went up and down, but I lost it quickly after that. My vision came back to the bathroom as I leaned back and sighed. I started thinking about how I was going to get this information across with telling Richie. That was going to be hard. If I could find a way to tell at least El and Mike W., then El would at least know to be safe. I took a deep breath and unlocked the door before going back to the group. Mike was talking through the walkie-talkie with Mike H. and Georgie next to him. Stan and Richie were looking through the dungeons and dragons binder, while El was still munching on her eggos.

Perfect.

I walked over to the lone girl and sat beside her in a little fort. Why would Mike even have a fort up in the basement.

“Hey El?” I said, sitting next to her.

“Hm?” She hummed with her mouth full of waffles.

“I need to tell you a secret.”

“What’s a secret?” She tilted her head in confusion. How could she not know what a secret is?

“It’s something you can’t tell anyone else, no matter how much another person wants to know.” She nodded, indicating that she understood what I had explained.

“I went back under.” I looked her in the eye. Her eyes widened in shocked.

“You broke a promise?” She whisper-shouted.

“Well, El, sometimes you have to for the greater good. Anyway, the mind flayer is coming after you tonight.” I told her.

“Tonight?” She shuddered.

“Yea, so we need to keep an eye on you. Maybe, we’ll have shifts on you so nothing happens.” I explained. She nodded, but I could tell she was scared.

“El, I promise nothing will happen to you, and if it does I will do everything I can to make sure we get you back.”

“But what about your promise with Richie? How can I trust you?” She questioned.

“Well, Of I kept my promise with Richie. You wouldn’t know about this, would you?” I raised an eyebrow. She was about to speak when she cut herself off and actually considered what I had said.

“Ok.”

 


	22. Possessed

**(Y/N) POV**

**RICHIE WAS CURRENTLY THE ONLY PERSON WHO DIDN’T KNOW I WAS STILL SEEING THROUGH** ITs mind. It was about 8:00pm and everyone was currently at Mike W. Of course the other half of the group didn’t get any information from Will, except the fact that something evil left his body and it’s out now. We all sat in the basement still thinking of different ways to stop this whole taking-over-the-world situation.

“Wait!” Dustin piped up. Everyone’s attention was turned to Dustin at his sudden outburst. “What if El used sensory deprivation to contact the turtle?”

“El, would you be able to do it?” Mike W. turned to El as they were both sitting in the fort.

“Uh, yea. I think I would be able to.” El nodded hesitantly.

“Does that mean we need to make the bath again?” Lucas questioned.

El shook her head. “No, I don’t need that anymore.”

“Let’s do it then.” Max nodded. Although the rest of us were left confused as to what they were talking about. We still helped El prepare for what was about to happen. They put the walkie-talkies in front of her and Lucas took off his bandana so she could shield her eyes. We all piled around, me and Mike being the closest just in case something happens. Soon, the talkies started making cackling noises.

Then the lights went out.

It was dark but not to dark. I could still see everyone around me, so that was that.

(Jane/El’s POV)

I opened my eyes and once again I was in an endless black room with shallow water at my feet. I walked around a little, trying to look for anything that might resemble a turtle. Soon enough, one appeared in front of me.

It looked like a normal turtle, but... wise and old.

Definitely old.

“What are you looking for, child?” The thing talked. It talked!

“Uh-uhm. IT is umm terrorizing-going to terrorize my world.” I stammered. I didn’t really know how to approach something like this. “IT mentioned you. Who are you?”

“I am Matirun, creator of all things. You want to defeat IT?”

“Yes.”

“Battle of wills.” Matirun said. What was that?

“What does that mean?” I asked, but he kept repeating the same word as he went away. I tried running after him, but he was still the same distance away from me. Running was pointless. He eventually disappeared into oblivion and I was left alone.

Or so I thought.

“Eleven.” A called from behind me. I hesitantly turned around, but I had to tilt my head up. It was the mind flayer.

“Mike!” I shouted, telling him to get me out of here. The giant monster started to approach me, so I turned to run away.

“Mike!” I kept screaming as I ran away. I don’t know why, but I couldn’t wake up. Something was keeping me from getting out of here. I stopped when something caught my hand and started dragging me towards the monster.

Something else grabbed my other hand, restraining me from running. It was pulling me back.

“Eleven.” The thing whispered. Suddenly I felt something go into my mouth.

Then my eyes.

Nose.

And ears.

It was taking me over. I couldn’t breathe, I was suffocating. Something was in my brain now and I couldn’t control it.

Then I woke up.


	23. She Likes it Cold

  
**(Y/N) POV**

**EL SHOT UP FROM HER FROZEN STATE. THERE WAS BLOOD DRIPPING PROFUSELY** from her nose and she was out of breath. Mike immediately hugged her, whispering comforting things into her ear. I rubbed her back, doing the same. I wonder what she saw.

“El, did you see anything?” Lucas asked. El lifted her head from Mike’s shoulder and shook her head. The group sighed and groaned, frustrated that we didn’t find anything.

“What do we do now?” Mike H. asked.

“I think we should call it a day.” I sighed, helping El get up. “El, do you need anything?”

“Eggos, definitely.” She weakly chuckled.

“I’ll go help you.” Max suggested, getting up.

“Sure, let me turn on the toaster, you get the eg-“ I was saying before El cut me off.

“No.” She snapped. “I want cold eggos.”

“Cold?” I questioned.

“Yea,” she nodded. “In fact, can we crack open a window. It’s really hot in here.” I looked at her suspiciously, because it was actually the coldest room in the house. But I guess she just went to that place so it might have been overwhelming.

“Sure,” Mike W. got up and opened the door a little so rushes of cold air came into the room.

“C’mon Max, let’s figure out how to make cold eggos.” I waved her over. She chuckled and followed me upstairs.

“I’ll join you,” Will spoke up and jumped up to follow us. On our way up, I noticed El give Will a small glare. What’s that about? Will immediately closed the door and pushed us in the kitchen.

“What the hell, Will?” I furrowed my eyebrows.

“El is possessed.” Will whispered.

“Uh what?” I questioned.

“This whole, ‘I’m hot, I want cold’ is the mind flayer.”

“How do you know?” Max asked.

“Because it happened to me?” Will muttered. “What I’m saying is we can’t trust-“

“Can’t trust who?” El came towards us.

“IT!” Will spoke up, startling me and Max. “We can’t trust IT.”

“Oh,” she smiled innocently. But there was something about that smile...

“El, what are you doing here?” I asked.

“Just wanted to help you guys.” She shrugged.

“Oh ok, have the rest of the group found anything?” I went to the freezer to grab some eggos.

“No, they’re just talking now.” El came over to me and just took the box.

She literally just took the box.

“Thanks,” She smiled and went back down the stairs. I stood there, shocked she had just took the box.

“Are you starting to believe me now?” Will asked, still in the same stat as me.

“A little, Yea.”


	24. She Like it Cold (Continued)

**(Y/N) POV**

**“WE NEED TO TELL MIKE,” I SAID PACING BACK AND FORTH. WILL, MAX AND I WERE THINKING** of ways to tell Mike about El. He definitely needed to know that his girlfriend has been possessed.

“El will never leave his side.” Max sighed.

“You just try and distract her while I go talk to him.” I pointed to Max and Will.

“How?” Will asked.

“Teach her some new eggo compilation or some shit.” I shrugged.

“Umm ok?” Max furrowed her eyebrows.

“El!” I called from up the stairs. The footsteps got louder as she came toward us. El finally stood in front of us chewing on a cold eggo.

“Umm we wanted to teach you how to make an eggo supreme!” Will exclaimed.

“That’s a thing?” Her eyes widened.

“Yeah?” Max said, though it came out as a question more than an answer.

“Well, don’t just stand there, teach me!” El smiled, though that smile she kept giving was bothering me. Something about it...

“One second guys, I gotta go speak to Richie.” I lied, and luckily El didn’t bat an eyelash. She was too focused on the ‘eggo supreme’ she was going to make. I went downstairs and found Mike, once again looking for in his dungeons and dragons binder.

“Mike,” I whisper-shouted. His head shot up and he looked at me in confusion.

“What is it?” He asked. I grabbed him and pulled him towards the back of the staircase, much to his dismay.

“What the he-“ I cut him off by shushing him and started to talk.

“It El,” I stated.

“What do you mean?” He asked.

“The mind flayer is inside her head now.” I gestured to my head to emphasize the point.

“What? How do you know?” He leaned back on the staircase.

“Will said the same things were happening to him when he was possessed.” I explained. It took a second for Mike to process what I just said, before his eyes widened in realization. He ran out in panic and began closing all the windows and doors.

“What’s going on?” Stan questioned.

“We need a syringe.” Mike said.

“What?” Eddie questioned.

“And that sleeping liquid thingy.” Mike ignored Eddie and continued looking for open spaces that might give out cold air.

“A sedative?” Beverly questioned.

“Why?” Richie questioned.

“Because if what (Y/N) said is true then we won’t be able to control her once she’s almost fully gone.” Mike whisper-shouted, making wild gestures.

“What exactly did you say?” Bev turned to me.

“Look, I can’t explain it right now. Just do what he says.” The losers looked at me in confusion, though they knew to just go along with it. That’s what everyone is doing at this point.

“Eddie you have needles, right?” I asked him.

“Yeah, but they’re at your house. I didn’t think I’d need them.” He shrugged.

“Ok, here’s what we’re doing.” Mike gathered us together. “(Y/N) and I will go to the pharmacy to get those sedative and you guys get the needles. And do this quick.”

“I’m coming with you.” Dustin and Richie said at the same time. Me and Mike gave each other confused glances, but soon waved it off.

“Ok?” He said and grabbed his jacket.

“Wait.” I stopped him. “What about you-know-who?” I tilted my head to the stairs.

“Shit,” he muttered before thinking for a second. “Get Will to take her to her cabin.” He pointed. “That’s where we’ll do it.”

“Do what exactly?” Ben asked.

“She’s in a state where you can’t trust her, so we need to get whatever’s inside her, out.” Mike explained.

“Wait, we’re going to burn-“ Lucas started, before getting cut off by Mike.

“It’s the only way.” He stated. “Get the needle and get her to her cabin.” Mike put on his jacket. “(Y/N), Richie, Dustin let’s go.” He nodded towards the door.

“Is he always like this?” Mike H. asked.

“When it comes to El, yes.” Lucas sighed.

“Wait!” Bev shouted before we went out the door. “Care to explain what we’re doing exactly.”

“There’s not a lot of time, but don’t trust El. And don’t tell her anything about this.” I said to them. Once again they were confused, but the looks on their faces told me they understood.

“Let’s go.”


	25. Distraction

****

**(Y/N) POV**

**MIKE, DUSTIN, RICHIE AND I WERE FUMBLING AROUND TRYING TO LOOK FOR** a sedative. We deserved weird looks from other people, but we were so invested in finding the product we didn’t care. Mike was definitely the most nervous, El is his girlfriend after all.

“Have you found it?” Mike asked me as he went down each shelf.

“No, I haven’t.” I sighed, pushing through various pill bottles. I gave up on this aisle and went to the next one, frantically trying to search each shelf.

“I found it!” I heard Dustin yell from about two aisles down from me. I ran down to meet him, Mike and Richie doing the same. We finally met up at the middle of the hall to see Dustin doing a little victory dance.

“Good job, Dustin.” Mike patted his back. I wrapped my arms around Dustin’s shoulders tightly, saying the same as Mike did. If I wasn’t so invested in the fact he found the sedative, I would’ve notice the fact his face was burning red.

“How much is it?” Richie asked. I looked back at the shelf where Dustin took the bottle from and my eyes widened at the price.

“Holy fucking shit, that’s a lot of money.” I muttered.

“What? What happe-“ Mike cut himself off when his eyes trailed to the price of the bottle.

“Where are we getting that kind of money?” Richie asked. I sighed, putting a hand on my hip and tapping my foot very quickly. I looked over to who was at the cashier and noticed he was a middle-aged man. He didn’t look like he was married and still lived with his mother in her basement. I knew what I had to do, and I know they wouldn’t agree.

“You guys get ready to run.” I told them discreetly.

“What are you going to do?” Mike asked.

“Just get ready to run okay?” I stated. They all had somewhat worried expressions on their faces, but still headed towards the door. I walked toward the cashier, trying to look a little more confident then I already am. Him, on the other hand, looked bored out of his mind, fiddling with his name tag. I grabbed a small bag of chips, so it looked like I was buying something. I finally reached him, putting the bag on the counter. He lazily took the bag swiped it across the counter, making a beep noise.

“That’ll be $2.10, please.” He deadpanned. His voice was actually deeper than I thought it was going to be.

“Having a bad day?” I asked him, twirling my hair around my finger. He seemed to be a little more alert after I asked him. “It’s okay not to tell me, I won’t budge.”

“Can you keep a secret?” He leaned down to my level. I nodded in response, keeping an innocent look on my face.

“Parental problems.”

I knew it.

“That sucks.” I sighed. I was still kind of confused as to why a grown man would tell a thirteen-year-old about his problems. I don’t think I’ve ever met an adult this pathetic.

And that was saying something.

“They just don’t,” I leaned forward in the counter. “-understand you, right?”

“Yes! Thank you.” He exclaimed. I giggled, pretending I cared about this conversation.

“I mean who would leave someone with such-“ I looked at his features to find something mildly nice. It was really hard, no wonder he’s not married. I decided on his “-amazing hair?”

“Oh stop,” he waved me off. “Your hair is also very amazing.” He reached his hand over to my hair and stroked his finger down a few strands. I was doing my best to not slap his hand away and punch him in the face.

“You really think so?” I giggled. I didn’t know how much I hated giggling until now.

“Oh, I know so.” He gave me a smile. That same creepy smile, like the ones Mr. Keene gave Bev or me. That smile that El had back at the house. And the same smile as that motherfucking clown.

I hated that smile.

I didn’t let it get to me though, and slid my elbow across the counter, making the little stand in front of me fall down.

“Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry.” I pretended to be worried.

“No no, it’s okay.” He bent down to pick up the fallen items, and was really focused on it too. I glanced down below me to see rows of candy. I picked up a pack of skittles and threw it to the back of the counter. The man shot up and looked at me in confusion.

“Did you see that?” He asked.

“See what?” I pretended to be oblivious, even though I knew fully well I caused the commotion.

“Something must’ve fell back there.” He muttered and sighed, walking to the back of the room. Part of me liked to believe he was regretting his life decisions, because he was really pathetic. I looked behind me to see the boys still standing there. Mike just looked awestruck, Dustin sharing the same look as Mike with a hint of anger, and Richie just looked angry. He hands were curled into fists and it looked like if he gripped them any tighter, he might pierce his skin. I nodded towards the door, telling them to leave. They seemed to catch on and started running towards the exit. I turned back to see him still struggling to pick the items up. He would always take a large portion and then drop them right after. I sighed at his patheticness and slid the bag of chips behind my back. I knew he would’ve forgotten about them by now. I also saw some theee musketeers bars and slid them in my pocket to save them for later.

***

“I thought you said you would stop using that!” Richie groaned. We were walking back to Mike’s house so we could get our bikes and meet up at El’s cabin.

“You’ve done that before?” Dustin looked at me in disbelief. “I never knew how creepy some adults could be until now.” He sighed.

“I know right,” I nudged him, causing us to chuckle softly.

“This is not a laughing matter,” Richie tried to sound serious, but I could tell he was trying to hold a chuckle back.

“Oh c’mon Rich.” I walked closer to him to ruffle his hair. He tried to slap my hand away, but started to laugh.

“I swear to God, if I see that guy again he’ll be living six feet under instead of his mom’s basement.” Richie put his arm around me, bringing me closer to him. I playfully rolled my eyes at his protectiveness, but still rested my head on his shoulder. I looked behind me and noticed Dustin trudging behind.

“C’mon Dustin.” I called him over. “I stole some candy to.” I winked at him and pulled out a bar of three musketeers from my pocket. He lit up, staring at the piece of chocolate. I motioned for him to come over and threw the bar to him. He caught it, walking up to me and I threw my arm around his shoulder.

“Mikey boy, join us.” Richie smirked at his look-a-like in front of us. Mike, on the other hand, wore a gloomy expression. I completely understood how worried he must be about all of this and the fact that we were smiling and walking happily wasn’t helping that any further. But I couldn’t let him be like this forever.

“We’re going to get her back, Mike.” I gave him a reassuring smile.

“Are you completely sure about that?” He sighed.

“Mike, don’t lose hope now. I mean, you called her every day for almost a year. And you didn’t even know she was alive.” Dustin added. My eyes widened in shock at the new discovery. Dustin’s words replayed in my head over and over again.

_Every day for almost a year._

“Is that commitment or desperation?” I looked at Richie in disbelief and smacked the back of his head. He snapped his head toward me and gave me a surprised look.

“That hurt.” He groaned and rubbed the now red spot on his neck. I felt no sympathy for him, knowing that what he said was completely disrespectful.

“You deserved it.” I said matter-of-factly. I turned my attention back to Mike who had a hint of a smile on his face.

“We’ll get her back.” I nodded. Mike stopped walking, causing the rest of us to do the same. I saw him visibly relax and take a deep breath.

“Ok.” 


	26. A Small Dance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things slow down for this chapter.

**(Y/N) POV**

**WE ARRIVED AT A SMALL OLD WOODEN CABIN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WOODS.** The amount of times we got lost looking for this place was baffling. It wasn’t until we called Hopper to ask him where it was that we found it. Explaining the whole situation to him was completely awkward. He was already frustrated at the fact he had to go all the way to Maine, and now he hears his daughter is possessed by a demon monster from another dimension. Hopper is a very scary man when he’s mad, but apparently even more scary when he’s scared.

“Mind the wire.” He grumbled, stepping over a thin white wire connected by two nearby trees. All of us cautiously stepped over the tripwire and continued walking normally once we were away from it. No one had shown up yet, probably because this place is so hard to find. We decided to call my place to make sure the new where they were going. Once we got in, I took in the nice roomy aroma of the cabin. It definitely wasn’t big, but it was comfortable.

“I’ll call the others.” I suggested and ran towards the telephone. As I dialed the phone number I started thinking about how much has changed. Just last year, I was a new kid in a small, albeit dangerous town. I had absolutely no friends when I got there, but managed to make one in the first ten to twenty minutes. What I didn’t know is that she would turn out to be one of my best friends. I also didn’t realize I would make four more a few days after. Then there was the amount of fun I didn’t have since... forever. It was such a new experience for me and I’m glad I got to do with them. There’s also the final two I had, until things started going to shit. The clown, the fights, the bullies. They were the down sides, but I still managed to stay friends with them. The bond we have is just amazing and I don’t want to lose it, it’s too precious. My thoughts were cut off by the sound of Bev’s voice through the phone.

“Hello?”

“Bev, it’s (Y/N).” I instinctively started twirling the cord around my index finger.

“Oh hi, Eddie got the needles.”

“Good, any news on El?” I asked.

“Yea,” she sighed. “She’s really creeping us out.”

“How so?”

“She keeps saying ‘he likes it cold’ then snapping out of it and going back to normal.” Bev whispered, probably worried she’d get caught.

“Just get her here.” I stated. I gave her the address to the cabin and we hung up. I sighed, placing the phone down.

It really has changed.

“Hey, love, you ok?” I heard Richie ask as he walked up to me. I snorted at the nickname he used, it was a really stupid nickname.

“Y’know the other nicknames aren’t that bad.” I leaned back on the wall.

“You can’t change it now.” Richie smiled.

“No, I can’t.” I muttered, smiling. I noticed Dustin, Mike, and Hopper were nowhere to be found. “Where are the others?” I asked, looking around for some sign of them.

“Get heaters, toasters, anything that produces heat really.” He shrugged. I nodded, though I was confused as to why they needed that kind of stuff. I didn’t really know what to do now, so I decided to just look through the dungeons and dragons binder again. I walked passed Richie and took out the binder from Mike’s bag that he brought. I flopped on the couch in front of the TV and started flipping through the pages to see if I missed anything.

“Hey (Y/N)?” Richie called out, as he walked towards me. I glanced up from the binder to see him smirking at me.

“What is it?” I asked him, looking back at the pages. I was really only half-listening to him. Finding new information was the only thing on my mind right now.

“We’re alone.” He said in a deeper voice and scooted next to me on the couch. Is he serious?

“So?”

“So, let’s do something together. Let’s-“ he stopped himself mid-sentence when it looked like a thought came to his head. “Let’s dance.”

I looked at him in disbelief.

“I’m not in the mood to dance.” I shook my head and once again, went back to looking to the binder. Dancing wasn’t even the last thing on my mind, it wasn’t in my mind at all. With everything happening, all I wanted to do was get this done and over with, so everyone can go back to their normal lives. Richie, it seemed, didn’t get the memo.

“You’re stressed and have nothing to do.” He said, getting up and looking for something.

“Wrong! I have this binder.” I picked up the binder and showed that I had a physical object in my hands that could potentially stop whatever we were dealing with. I heard Richie huff and the sound of footsteps as he got closer to me. Suddenly I didn’t feel the binder in my hands anymore, Richie was walking with the item in hand and putting it back in Mike’s bag.

“What the-, Richie!” I whined, really not wanting to put up with this nonsense.

“Love, we need to spend time together.” Richie said matter-of-factly.

“Can we do it after this whole dimensional threat?” I leaned back on the couch with my arms crossed, huffing at the fact I wasn’t getting anything done. I felt like if I was doing nothing, I was slacking off. Richie, in the other hand, was placing a radio on the table next to the kitchen and turning the knob to get a good signal. The sound of static filled the room until it was replaced with Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Time after Time.’

“Perfect.” Richie clapped his hands together and walked over to me. I was still buried in the couch, refusing to get up.

“C’mon.” He reaches out his hand for me to take. I was obviously not going to take it, since all of this was just too stupid to me. Richie sighed and grabbed one of my crossed arms. I was jolted up by his sudden strength and he unfolded my arms. At this point, I was just not feeling it and let my arms flop to the sides.

“This isn’t how people dance, (Y/N).” Richie groaned.

“I guess I’m not a person them.” I shrugged and smiled lazily. He sighed once more and decided to take my left hand. He guided it to his shoulder and slid his hand around my waist. I flinched at the touch, which startled him.

If I’m being honest, I’ve never actually danced with someone before. I had no one to do it with before I was in Derry. I didn’t know how it worked.

“(Y/N),” Richie whispered. “I’m not going to hurt you. It’s just dancing”

“Rich, I don’t know how.” I whispered back.

“Neither do I, have you seen me try to dance? I look awful.” He sighed, making me chuckle softly. “Just trust me.”

And I did.

I trust him.

He once again slid his hand around my waist, and I didn’t pull away. My hand was still on his shoulder, and our other hands were interlocked together. They fitted like a glove.

“Just follow me.” He shrugged. We started swaying back and forth to the beat of the song. I grew confused, since I thought dancing was harder than this.

“I thought you said we were dancing?” I questioned.

“This is dancing?” He said matter-of-factly.

“This is just swaying.”

“That qualifies as dancing.”

“Seriously?” I looked at him in disbelief. I thought it would like a complicated five step pattern that I had to memorize. Richie nodded in response and we kept quiet. I drowned out the sound of our breathing, the heat waves coming from the heater, the sound of birds chirping from outside, the sound of my heart beating insanely fast which I didn’t know was going so fast. All of it. Just the sound of the song filled my ears. It was a soothing melody that was just calm and perfect. It made me escape to a world where all of this didn’t exist. The upside down, the turtle, the mind flayer, a possessed child, the clown, the threats. They weren’t there anymore I just this song and... him.

I didn’t realize my eyes were closed, until I opened them to see him staring at me with a big smile on his face. And it wasn’t the creepy smile I’ve been getting a lot lately, it was genuine and real.

“Do I have something on my face?” I grinned.

“No,” Richie shook his head nonchalantly.

“Then why are you interested in my face?” I chuckled softly.

“I just dozed off, I guess.” He said sarcastically.

“You really expect me to believe that?” I tilted my head innocently.

“Definitely not,” he smiled.

“So, then what’s the real reason?”

“You have a really nice face to look at.” He chuckled, causing me to chuckle back. I wish I could stay like this forever. I saw his eyes flicker down to my lips as he started to lean in. I slowly started to lean in too, until he did a one-eighty and brought into a dip. I was startled by the sudden moved and stumbled closer to him as he pulled me back up. Our face were literally millimeters apart with our noses touching each other.

“You fucking tease.” I whispered softly, chuckling at his stupid antic.

“I try to be.” He whispered back. This time he actually started to lean in, but I wasn’t doing the same and brought my finger to his lips.

“How do I know you’re not going to tease me again?” I smirked.

“That’s not how I roll.” He mumbled through the resistance I was giving him to speak. I removed my finger and-

Mike came bursting through the door with a worried expression on his face. He looked like he was about to curl up into a ball and cry. Me and Richie broke apart at the sudden surprise and I heard him groan beside me.

“Just a little longer.” I heard him mutter beside me.

“We need to get to the lab.” Mike panted.

“Does everyone need to go? I kinda wanted to spend some time with-“ Richie was cut off when Mike shouted-

“YES! All of us need to go.”

“Why? Did something happen?” I asked, with my worry starting to build up. Mike finally caught his breath and said three words I didn’t want to hear.

_“El is gone.”_


	27. Overprotective

**(Y/N) POV**

**EL IS GONE**

**THE SMALL SENTENCE KEPT REPLAYING IN MY HEAD**. She’s gone. How? When? Where? Why?

“Where’d she go?” Richie asked beside me.

“I don’t know but I’m assuming it’s the lab.” Mike ran his hand through his hair, clearly showing he was stressed about this.

“Why?” I asked.

“The rest of the group said they’ve been checking everywhere, but no one has gone to the lab.” Mike explained. I suddenly remembered the vision about getting El to open the gate.

At the lab.

“We need to go,” I said urgently. “Right now!” I grabbed my jacket and gestured Mike and Richie to follow me.

“Wait!” I heard Mike call from behind me. “We should get the heaters.” He suggested.

“Why?” Richie asked. “Isn’t this more important?”

“There’s no way we’ll be able to bring her back here.” Mike replied. That actually made sense. How are we supposed to bring a person with powers back here without her hurting somebody. Come to think of it, how are we going to sedate her without a commotion?

“Ok, yea fine, get the heaters.” Richie waved him off and we all met up with Dustin and Hopper in the back to go get the items.

***

We met up with The rest of the group at the lab. I could tell everyone was scared. I mean just a few months ago, everything was pretty normal for everybody. Now we’re trying to find a girl with telekinetic powers who has is possessed and has the ability to open a gate to a different dimension.

“What exactly is the plan, here?” Max asked.

“Mike?” I turned to him, hoping he came up with something.

“We’re going to sedate El, burn that motherfucker out of her-“ it took me some time to process the fact that someone like him just said the word ‘motherfucker.’ “-then hope she got some actual information that could help us defeat the mind flayer.”

Everyone had shocked looks on their faces, seeing the determination and fire Mike had in his eyes and his plan. He turned on his heel and walked confidently towards the lab.

“The things that girl does to him.” Lucas mumbled.

“You’re telling me.” Eddie scoffed. All of hesitantly walked towards the big building which coincidentally looked like a ‘X’. The placed look new, very new in fact for a place that was closed down. The entrance was boarded up, but Hopper immediately broke it down, startling the rest of us. We all looked at him in awe as he vigorously brought down the boarded wall.

“What?” He asked dismissively. We all turned our attention to anything else beside us as he continued to take it down. Dustin brought his attention to me as he walked in my direction.

“Steve is coming.” He beamed. I lit up when I heard the boy’s name. Steve was the definition of cool, even though I only met him once.

“Cool,” I nodded.

“And I just wanted to let you know that... if we die, it was an honour knowing you (Y/N).” He patted my shoulder, and I snorted in response.

“We are not going to do die, ok.” I reassured him.

“It’s just in case.” He put his hands up in defence. We both chuckled and glanced over to Hopper who had taken the wall down.

“This was definitely Jane.” Hopper sighed.

“How do you know?” Will asked,

“These boards look like they were just toppled on top of one another, they don’t look professional.” He explained and kicked a stray piece of wood out of the way. We walked through the new pathway and made our way closer to the building. I looked behind me and saw Will looking scared out of his mind, even more so than the others. I wanted to approach him, but Eddie of all people beat me to it.

(Eddie’s POV)

Saying I was scared was an understatement. I’m terrified of what’s about to happen and I don’t even fully know what’s going on. The lack of information a lot of us have gotten is staggering, and I still don’t one hundred percent know what we’re walking into. I gulped at the sight of the large building in front of me, but it looked like there was someone more scared beside me. Was that even possible? Still, I walked over to the boy who was walking the slowest in the group.

“Hey Will, you okay?” I asked him placing the hand that didn’t have a cast on his shoulder.

“If I’m being honest, no.” He muttered. “This place brings back... bad memories.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” I asked, although I had no idea why I even bothered to approach him in the first place. This was something (Y/N) or Bill would do, not me.

“Well, um- I’ve kind of been blaming myself for something that happened here.” Will fiddled with his fingers. My curiosity grew more apparent as he went on. “My mom’s boyfriend was... um-“ Tears threatened to fall from his face. I started to connect the dots and concluded that the man was killed in there.

“I’m really sorry, Will.” I muttered. “But why do you blame yourself?”

“Because, it’s my fault. I could’ve prevented it if I hadn’t-... if I hadn’t-“ I stopped him by hugging him. He stiffened at the sudden gesture, but soon softened and hugged me back. I felt my shoulder start to feel damp, but for the first time I didn’t care. A friend needed comfort. We finally broke apart and joined the group.

“Look, I don’t know exactly what happened and I’m not going to force you to tell, but I assume it had something to do with you being possessed?” I questioned. I saw him nod, but the movement was so small he could’ve just been moving his head. “Then it’s not your fault.”

“But-“

“Will, you had no control in your actions. None. It’s not your fault.” I reassured him. Will was about to speak up, before he stopped himself and sighed. I assumed my words had gotten to him and gave him time to think. He finally nodded in response, letting me give a breath of relief.

“Thank you Eddie.” Will smiled. I smiled back, and had a mischievous idea.

“Call me Eds.” I shouted loud enough for Richie to hear.

“Are you fucking kidding me right now?” I heard Richie shout from the front of the group.

“Richie, calm down.” Mike H. groaned. Me and Will both chuckled and continued walking down the path. “We’ll get through this together. All of us.” I nudged him, making him smile in response.

“Let’s just hope El doesn’t throw us across the room.” I mumbled to myself.

 


	28. Shit Happens

**(Beverly’s POV)**

**I WAS WALKING TOWARDS  THE LAB, HAND  IN HAND WITH BILL. IT WAS** **** ****hard to tell who’s hands were sweating more. This something definitely bigger than just IT now. This was catastrophic, and I’m not sure just a bunch of kids, a man with a gun, a few older teenagers with baseball bats, and right now a possessed girl with powers could stop it.

“Are you more scared th-th-than me right n-n-now?” Bill asked.

“Everyone’s fear combined is nothing compared to mine.” I sighed looking ahead.

“Wanna b-b-bet?” He joked trying to lighten the mood a bit.

“Who knew we’d get like this?” I tilted my head back and closed my eyes.

“Us, a couple months ago w-w-would’ve thought we were c-c-crazy.” He smiled weakly.

“Especially since this happened.” I brought our hands up to convey the message that we were together now.

“Sometimes, I wish we could back to the times when the c-c-craziest thing we were d-d-doing was jumping off the q-q-quarry.” Bill chuckled.

“How about we talk about something else? To get our mind off this?” I suggested. I kind of just wanted to get away from this whole situation for a little while. I could practically feel the fear filling the air around everybody, and the older teens hadn’t even shown up yet.

“Well, (Y/N)’s b-birthday is in a week.” Bill shrugged. Thank god, that was a perfect distraction.

“Well, uh when it comes to birthdays, she’s not really-“

“Yeah, I remember last y-y-year.” Bill muttered.

“What happened last year?” I asked.

“She wouldn’t even come out of her house, let alone open the d-d-door. She said she’d never s-s-spend her birthday doing something fun and that year w-w-was no different.” He explained. “There’s also the fact she s-s-slammed Richie’s face into the c-c-cupcake we made her.” Bill actually laughed at that.

“Damn, I would’ve love to see that.” I chuckled. “I didn’t even know when her birthday was until the day after. All we did was sleepover, which was a very hard thing to do by the way.”

“Wasn’t her uncle out of t-t-town that week?”

“Yeah, he didn’t want to be with her that day.” I muttered, remembering how lonely she was when I visited her. Of course, her uncle was terrible, but she needed someone. At least one person to care.

“So, what’re we g-g-going to do for her this year?” Bill asked

“Maybe a surprise? So, she won’t have a choice.” I suggested.

“That’s a g-good idea.” We both chuckled, but soon stopped as the front door came into full view. My grip on Bill’s hand became tighter as a weird feeling in my stomach started to flourish.

“I’m not leaving your s-s-side, Beverly. Okay?” He turned to me. I nodded hesitantly and calmed down a little knowing he wasn’t lying.

“We’re here!” A male’s voice called from behind us. Everyone turned around to see Nancy, Steve and Jonathon running towards us. Steve was carrying a bat filled with nails in the edge. Nancy had a shotgun at the helm, and Jonathan was carrying an old-fashion handgun.

“Oh brother,” Bill groaned. It was probably at the fact Steve was here, and me and (Y/N) were gawking at how cool he was.

“He’s too old for me anyways.” I grabbed Bill’s face and turned it towards me.

“That doesn’t help.” I slapped my hands away from his face and playfully rolled his eyes. I chuckled at his jealousness and placed a kiss on his cheek to make him feel better.

“C’mon Bill.” I pulled him closer to me and we walked into the lab.

(Y/N) POV

All of us hesitantly walked into the building, all the lights were flickering which was odd to me, because this I thought this place was closed. An eerie silence filled the room as no one talked. It was as if, if someone said a word, a monster would pop out. Richie and Dustin were on either side of me with nervous expressions on their faces. Lucas and Max were just ahead of me holding hands tightly. Beverly and Bill were together behind me, probably holding hands also and Eddie and Will were beside them. Stan and Ben were hanging near Mike H., since he was the only kid with a weapon. He got an extra bat from Steve who was carrying it with him. Speaking of Steve, he was in front with the rest of the teens, Hopper and Mike.

What a group.

I looked to the left of me and gasped out loud, causing everyone to look in my direction. I kept my eyes at the haunting sight next to me. Richie and Dustin looked in the same direction and their eyes widened. At the end of a corridor, there was a man lying lifeless on the ground. Hopper and the teens came toward us and caught a glimpse of the corpse.

“We’re going this way.” Hopper said, putting his gun in a shooting position.

“In the direction of the dead body?” Dustin looked at the man in disbelief.

“Did you just say dead?” Eddie wheezed and ran toward us before gagging at the sight. “I think I’m going to throw up.” He gagged.

“Do it later, kid. Let’s go.” Hopper announced and we all went further into the hall. Everyone was mindful of the dead body. At a closer glance, I saw that the man was a security guard by the uniform and badge. The abnormal feature of the man was the fact their was blood pouring from his eyes, nose and ears. The frightening part was that his eyes were still wide open, like a real life doll. I shuddered at the sight, but kept walking. To the left of us was an elevator and on the wall was a door that lead to a staircase.

“I suggest we take the stairs.” Jonathon spoke up. All of us nodded, knowing anything could be in that elevator. Out of instinct, I grabbed Richie’s hand beside me, which he squeezed in response to.

“I’m right here.” He assured me, to which I nodded, knowing he wouldn’t leave.

“You promise?” I asked.

“Without a doubt,” he smiled, making me feel safer. Hopper went through the door first, checking if the coast was clear. He pointed his gun in different directions just in case something wanted to pop out.

“We’re going downstairs, that’s where the gate was.” He nodded towards the stairs going to the basement.

***

The basement managed to be more creepier than the first floor. The lights were dimmed down here, but they were still flickering. My hand still didn’t leave Richie’s, but I wanted to leave this place so badly. I couldn’t help but feel something bad was going to happen, that someone or something is watching us.

That’s when my vision went black.

I shielded my eyes, not letting Richie see them because God knows what he would do if he saw. My vision came back and once again I was in front of the shadowy figure.

“Have they come?” The figure asked.

“Yes, their going after the girl.” IT replied. This was a trap? They knew we were coming, which means that we aren’t safe.

“Good, get her to split them up. We’ll use them instead. Then she’ll will start opening the gate.” The figure said, before disappearing into the abyss. My vision came back to the eerie corridor and my breathing started to go a little faster. They wanted us to come here, and we fell for it.

“I think we need to cover more ground.” Hopper sighed. “This lab is insanely big.”

“Ok, half of us could-“ I cut off Nancy by shouting-

“No!” I walked up to them, letting go of Richie’s hand. “That’s a bad idea.”

“Why?” She asked. I glanced over to Richie, remembering I couldn’t let him know. I started panicking and no words came out.

“Are you still keeping your secret from him?” A female voice called from behind us. Everyone turned around simultaneously and saw

“El,” Mike whispered beside me. She slowly approached us, or me specifically until she was right up in my face.

“Go ahead (Y/N), tell him.” El smiled creepily. My breath hitched and my pulse sped up as she said those words.

“Tell who?” Richie spoke up.

“Do you want to tell him, or should I?” El whispered. My throat was suddenly really dry and butterflies were grazing across my stomach. I didn’t want him to find out this way. I didn’t want him to find out at all.

“(Y/N) broke a promise.” El announced. I closed my eyes and sighed, knowing the jig was up. “She lied to Richie.”

“(Y/N), what’s she talking about?” Richie came up to us.

“Remember those little visions she had?” She said to Richie, though her eyes were still on me. “She kept doing them even after you told her to stop.”

“Bullshit, your lying.” Richie said matter-of-factly. “Right (Y/N)?”

I stayed silent. I wanted to be anywhere but here.

“Right (Y/N)?” He repeated.

“Rich,” I took a step towards him, but he took a step back with a pained look in his face.

“You lied to me?” He looked at me in disbelief.

“I had to-“ I was about to speak, when El cut me off.

“Anyway, IT knows now.” She said. “I told IT what (Y/N) was doing.” As if this couldn’t get any worse. Richie was right. Mike W. pushed past everyone to come face to face with El.

“El, this isn’t you.” Mike whispered.

“El isn’t here anymore, she’s gone.” Her sounded a little more demonic than usual.

“I know she’s in there somewhere.”

“Stop trying to get her back. There’s only a player in the master’s game.” Then her voice got deeper.

“I want to speak to El.” Mike said, a little more demanding.

“Kid,” Hopper sighed from behind me and took a step forward, trying to tell him this wasn’t working.

“No, no! She’s there. I know it,” his voice cracked, indicating to me he was starting to cry.

“She’s not!” El growled.

“A memory,” Mike mumbled, looking like he was thinking about something. “A memory! It’s how we got through Will.”

“Stop trying, or else.” El’s voice kept getting more demonic by the second. This really wasn’t helping any of us at all.

“Remember the snowball, you were finally allowed to come for one night-“

“Mike, this isn’t working,” I tried telling him, but he continued.

“I said you looked really beautiful that night and El, I really meant it, you did. And you are-“

“Stop,” El warned, but he kept talking.

“-you said you didn’t know how to dance and neither did I, so I said we could figure it out together-“

“Stop talking.” El’s voice switched back to her normal one, but went back to demonic immediately. He was effecting her.

“-Remember the song? It was ‘Every Breath You Take’ by The Police. I know you remember that song-“

“She’s gone!” El snapped and formed her right hand in a cupped position. Suddenly, Mike started choking, grabbing his neck from the pain. My eyes widened in realization when I put the pieces together and concluded El was choking him. Max came up from behind me telling her to stop, when El twitched her head, sending Max flying backwards and hitting a wall pretty hard.

“Max!” We all screamed, especially Lucas. He was the one to sprint towards her, it looked like she was knocked out cold. We all turned our attention back to El, but she was gone.

And she took Mike with her.


	29. Splitting Up

**(Y/N) POV**

**“MIKE!” NANCY CALLED OUT, RUNNING TOWARDS WHERE THEY HAD VANISHED FROM.** All of us also started shouting his name. Everything was just too overwhelming. Richie found out about my secret, we’re losing El by the minute and now Mike is gone.

“This is bad, he got carried away.” Dustin stammered.

“What do you mean, ‘carried away?” I turned to him.

“He has the sedative.” Dustin sighed. I started to connect the dots and realized he was going to puncture her with the sedative.

“So, he still has it?” I looked at him in disbelief. Dustin sadly nodded in response, making me even more frustrated than before.

“You guys let him do that?” Nancy looked angry, like really angry. Her face was red, her fists were clenched and her voice was starting to sound like El’s.

“We thought if El got an emotional connection, she wouldn’t notice. But it looks like Mike got to into it.” Will explained.

“How about we go and find him?” Stan suggested.

“They could’ve gone anywhere.” Ben sighed. Hopper walked over to me, very scarily I might add and went down to my level.

“Hey kid, give me a reason we shouldn’t spilt up. Because right now, my possessed telekinetic daughter has her brother-“ he pointed to Nancy. “-in a choke hold and has the power to kill him. If we don’t find him soon, he’ll be dead before we know it.”

“It’s because of IT.” I stated.

“What?” He asked impatiently.

“IT,” I repeated.

“What’s IT?”

“A clown.”

“You called a clown IT?” He looked at me in disbelief.

“Well IT wasn’t human.” I shrugged.

“But it looks like a clown?” He questioned.

“Well, that’s one of IT’s forms. Apparently ITs favourite one.”

“Does it look like a male clown or a female clown?” He asked.

“Male.”

“So, why don’t you just identify IT as a he?” Hopper tilted his head.

“Because we don’t know ITs true form is actually a clown.” I rocked back and forth on heels.

“But why-“

“Hey!” Nancy interrupted Hopper, causing our attention to turn to her. “This is a huge waste of time! My brother could be dead and your talking about what gender this clown could be?”

“Sorry,” I muttered. “But he’s the one who asked.”

“Why can’t we split up?” She asked.

“Because if we do, we’ll be more vulnerable. I had a-“ I cut myself off when I saw Richie’s face staring back at me with a disappointing look on his face. I tried my best to ignore him and turned back to Nancy. “They’ll take us out one by one if we spilt up. The missing kids were going to be used for something and the mind flayer said that we’ll just replace them. We walked into a trap.” I explained. I looked around and everyone either looked scared, frustrated or both.

“We’re still splitting up.” Hopper huffed.

“Did you not hear a fucking word I just said?” I looked at him in disbelief.

“I heard every single one of it. But at least two of us have a weapon, so we’ll split the group in half.” Hopper announced.

“I agree, we should split up.” Richie spoke. “I’d like to be away from some people for awhile.” He muttered loud enough for me to hear. I furrowed my eyebrows and watched as he walked passed me to Hopper. He was just doing this to be against me, not because it was logical.

“What about Max?” Lucas asked, cradling the unconscious girl in his arms. You could easily see the dry tear tracks that streamed down his face. I turned back to Hopper who was sighing and tapping his foot pretty fast.

“Jonathon can you stay with Max and Lucas?” He asked.

“You want to split us up even more?” I groaned.

“Hey kid,” He walked up to me, fuming. “You see that?” He pointed to Jonathon’s gun. “He can protect them, no one is going anywhere dangerous without someone to protect them.” I gritted my teeth, knowing I wasn’t changing his mind.

“You, you, you and you come with me.” He pointed to Mike H., Eddie, Will and Stan. “The rest of you go with Nancy and Steve.” He waved us off.

“I’m coming with you.” Richie spoke up to Hopper. I knew he just wanted to get away from me, even when he said he wouldn’t leave my side. I guess everyone is breaking promises today.

“Whatever.” Hopper shrugged. “You guys go down the left corridor, we will go down the right.” He instructed. I walked over to Nancy and Steve’s group and went beside Beverly. I turned back to look at Richie, hoping he would spare one glance.

But he didn’t, not one.

Even though, I didn’t know that when I turned back around he was looking at me too.

“Hey,” Bev caught my attention. “He’ll come around eventually.” She gave me a sad smile.

“I just can’t believe I fucked up that badly.” I scoffed, lazily kicking the air.

“If you d-d-didn’t do that, we wouldn’t have g-g-gotten the information we did.” Bill assured me.

“But I got caught.” I countered.

“Because El was possessed, which isn’t her fault, but if all of us were more careful, this wouldn’t have happened to her.” Bev replied. I took a deep breath and absorbed her words. I knew deep down that this was my fault, but I wasn’t letting them know, because I didn’t want them to feel sorry for me. I don’t need anyone’s pity.

“Thanks Bev.” I smiled at her. “Thank you too Bill.”

“No problemo,” Bev shrugged, causing me to chuckle.

“You’re such a weirdo.” I playfully rolled my eyes.

“Well, actually s-s-she’s a loser.” Bill cut in. Bev whipped her head towards Bill with an offended look on her face.

“So are you.” She retorted and stuck her tongue out at him.

“So?” He questioned.

“God, you’re too self-confident.” Bev playfully rolled her eyes.

“Have you met Bill?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Wow (Y/N), I really appreciate the b-b-boost in self-esteem.” Bill groaned.

“No problem, William.” I smirked. He sent a glare my way, since he hated his actual name. “No take backs,” I threw my hands up in defence.

“If we don’t die by th-th-this? You’re still not making it out of here alive.” He playfully threatened me.

“Bev! You’re boyfriend is bullying me!” I whined.

“I’m not his mother, he can do what he wants.” Bev shrugged.

“Wow, I really appreciate the help.” I said sarcastically. I glanced over ahead of us to Nancy and Steve who were talking amongst themselves. Jonathon, Lucas and an unconscious Max retreated into a small room, probably to wait for Max to get better. Ben and Dustin were also talking amongst themselves, but my attention went over to something else.

A figure at the end of the hall.


	30. Eddie The Therapist

  
**(Eddie’s POV)**

**DO I THINK RICHIE IS BEING IRRATIONAL? DEFINITELY. YES, (Y/N) HAS BEEN THROUGH** hell and back, but he was really overreacting about this. But what was I going to do? Richie’s too much of a stubborn asshole to persuade, but I guess there’s no hurt in trying. Right now, he was in the front of the group, next to Hopper. It seemed he was annoying the hell out of him.

“-kid, I don’t know about your problems, but frankly I don’t care. Please go tell someone who does.” He groaned. I walked up to him and asked if I could borrow Richie for a moment. He replied with “yes please,” and I dragged him to the back of the group.

“Eddie, I swear to God, if this is about you getting me to forgive (Y/N) I don’t want to hear it.” Richie warned.

“But Rich-“

“I don’t want to hear it.” Richie covered his ears with his hands and closed his eyes. I rolled my eyes at his childishness.

“Can’t you see this from her point of view?” I suggested. His hands were still on his ears, so I forcefully ripped them away.

“Can’t you just see this from her point of view?” I repeated.

“Ok sure. So I’ve been through shit before I moved here, being compelled to kill my friends because I was given false memories by a demon. Then I got into more shit when the motherfucking clown told me to cut off my friends and be human sacrifice. And now? I’m choosing to put myself in more danger by getting these creepy ass visions with the chance of getting caught. Yeah, that makes sense.” He replied sarcastically.

“Have you even met (Y/N)?” I looked at him in disbelief. “She will do anything. Anything, to protect her friends, even if it means putting herself in danger. Yeah, she’s been through shit, but so have all of us. So, instead of being mad at her, you should be thanking her for risking her life for your sorry ass.” I retorted.

“But, she lied to me. How am I supposed to trust her?”

“Richie, all of us lied to you.” I looked away when I said that. I didn’t really want to see the look on his face.

“What are you talking about?” He asked.

“All of us knew she was still using those visions.” I muttered.

“I was the only one who didn’t know?” He looked at me in disbelief.

“We did it for a good reason.” I tried to reason with him.

“Tell me, please tell me your brilliant reason as to why I didn’t know.” He was fuming at this point.

“Because you would’ve stop everything!” I snapped. “I know she’s your girlfriend and you want to protect her and everything, but she’s trying to help us all out by stopping this. Sometimes you need to see the bigger picture, instead of thinking of short-term ones.” I took a deep breath, realizing I was ranting more than I was talking. I had a right to be though. “If you want to protect her, do it now. But-oh wait! You can’t because you left her alone with the other group because you were too annoyed to be with her.” I said sarcastically. Richie was looking down the entire time I was talking, I wasn’t even sure if he was actually listening.

He finally sighed and faced me. “I’m sorry, Eddie. But-it’s going to take me sometime to forgive her. Maybe, If we talked about it, I would’ve changed my mind. I just wanted her to at least try and consult me.” He kicked the air. I sighed, kind of seeing where he was coming from. His girlfriend told everyone but him she was doing something dangerous. I guess it would’ve hurt if I were in that situation.

“Well, I think you should just talk to her.” I patted his back.

“How am I supposed to do that?” He groaned and ran his hands down his face in frustrated. It was at that point I realized the group was spilt up and (Y/N) wasn’t here.

“Ok, well at least do something to show you forgive her.” I shrugged. Richie sighed, then nodded and stuffed his hands in his pockets lazily.

“Thanks, Eddie.” He sent me a weak smile, making me smile back. “Hey, since I followed your advice. Can I call you  
(Y/N) POV

“MIKE!” NANCY CALLED OUT, RUNNING TOWARDS WHERE THEY HAD VANISHED FROM. All of us also started shouting his name. Everything was just too overwhelming. Richie found out about my secret, we’re losing El by the minute and now Mike is gone.

“This is bad, he got carried away.” Dustin stammered.

“What do you mean, ‘carried away?” I turned to him.

“He has the sedative.” Dustin sighed. I started to connect the dots and realized he was going to puncture her with the sedative.

“So, he still has it?” I looked at him in disbelief. Dustin sadly nodded in response, making me even more frustrated than before.

“You guys let him do that?” Nancy looked angry, like really angry. Her face was red, her fists were clenched and her voice was starting to sound like El’s.

“We thought if El got an emotional connection, she wouldn’t notice. But it looks like Mike got to into it.” Will explained.

“How about we go and find him?” Stan suggested.

“They could’ve gone anywhere.” Ben sighed. Hopper walked over to me, very scarily I might add and went down to my level.

“Hey kid, give me a reason we shouldn’t spilt up. Because right now, my possessed telekinetic daughter has her brother-“ he pointed to Nancy. “-in a choke hold and has the power to kill him. If we don’t find him soon, he’ll be dead before we know it.”

“It’s because of IT.” I stated.

“What?” He asked impatiently.

“IT,” I repeated.

“What’s IT?”

“A clown.”

“You called a clown IT?” He looked at me in disbelief.

“Well IT wasn’t human.” I shrugged.

“But it looks like a clown?” He questioned.

“Well, that’s one of IT’s forms. Apparently ITs favourite one.”

“Does it look like a male clown or a female clown?” He asked.

“Male.”

“So, why don’t you just identify IT as a he?” Hopper tilted his head.

“Because we don’t know ITs true form is actually a clown.” I rocked back and forth on heels.

“But why-“

“Hey!” Nancy interrupted Hopper, causing our attention to turn to her. “This is a huge waste of time! My brother could be dead and your talking about what gender this clown could be?”

“Sorry,” I muttered. “But he’s the one who asked.”

“Why can’t we split up?” She asked.

“Because if we do, we’ll be more vulnerable. I had a-“ I cut myself off when I saw Richie’s face staring back at me with a disappointing look on his face. I tried my best to ignore him and turned back to Nancy. “They’ll take us out one by one if we spilt up. The missing kids were going to be used for something and the mind flayer said that we’ll just replace them. We walked into a trap.” I explained. I looked around and everyone either looked scared, frustrated or both.

“We’re still splitting up.” Hopper huffed.

“Did you not hear a fucking word I just said?” I looked at him in disbelief.

“I heard every single one of it. But at least two of us have a weapon, so we’ll split the group in half.” Hopper announced.

“I agree, we should split up.” Richie spoke. “I’d like to be away from some people for awhile.” He muttered loud enough for me to hear. I furrowed my eyebrows and watched as he walked passed me to Hopper. He was just doing this to be against me, not because it was logical.

“What about Max?” Lucas asked, cradling the unconscious girl in his arms. You could easily see the dry tear tracks that streamed down his face. I turned back to Hopper who was sighing and tapping his foot pretty fast.

“Jonathon can you stay with Max and Lucas?” He asked.

“You want to split us up even more?” I groaned.

“Hey kid,” He walked up to me, fuming. “You see that?” He pointed to Jonathon’s gun. “He can protect them, no one is going anywhere dangerous without someone to protect them.” I gritted my teeth, knowing I wasn’t changing his mind.

“You, you, you and you come with me.” He pointed to Mike H., Eddie, Will and Stan. “The rest of you go with Nancy and Steve.” He waved us off.

“I’m coming with you.” Richie spoke up to Hopper. I knew he just wanted to get away from me, even when he said he wouldn’t leave my side. I guess everyone is breaking promises today.

“Whatever.” Hopper shrugged. “You guys go down the left corridor, we will go down the right.” He instructed. I walked over to Nancy and Steve’s group and went beside Beverly. I turned back to look at Richie, hoping he would spare one glance.

But he didn’t, not one.

Even though, I didn’t know that when I turned back around he was looking at me too.

“Hey,” Bev caught my attention. “He’ll come around eventually.” She gave me a sad smile.

“I just can’t believe I fucked up that badly.” I scoffed, lazily kicking the air.

“If you d-d-didn’t do that, we wouldn’t have g-g-gotten the information we did.” Bill assured me.

“But I got caught.” I countered.

“Because El was possessed, which isn’t her fault, but if all of us were more careful, this wouldn’t have happened to her.” Bev replied. I took a deep breath and absorbed her words. I knew deep down that this was my fault, but I wasn’t letting them know, because I didn’t want them to feel sorry for me. I don’t need anyone’s pity.

“Thanks Bev.” I smiled at her. “Thank you too Bill.”

“No problemo,” Bev shrugged, causing me to chuckle.

“You’re such a weirdo.” I playfully rolled my eyes.

“Well, actually s-s-she’s a loser.” Bill cut in. Bev whipped her head towards Bill with an offended look on her face.

“So are you.” She retorted and stuck her tongue out at him.

“So?” He questioned.

“God, you’re too self-confident.” Bev playfully rolled her eyes.

“Have you met Bill?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Wow (Y/N), I really appreciate the b-b-boost in self-esteem.” Bill groaned.

“No problem, William.” I smirked. He sent a glare my way, since he hated his actual name. “No take backs,” I threw my hands up in defence.

“If we don’t die by th-th-this? You’re still not making it out of here alive.” He playfully threatened me.

“Bev! You’re boyfriend is bullying me!” I whined.

“I’m not his mother, he can do what he wants.” Bev shrugged.

“Wow, I really appreciate the help.” I said sarcastically. I glanced over ahead of us to Nancy and Steve who were talking amongst themselves. Jonathon, Lucas and an unconscious Max retreated into a small room, probably to wait for Max to get better. Ben and Dustin were also talking amongst themselves, but my attention went over to something else.

A figure at the end of the hall.  
Eds?” He asked.

“Ha, no, no you shall not be calling me that.” I chuckled and shook my head.

“What why?”

“It took so long to consider my advice, so...” I smirked.

“Wow, I’m actually offended.” Richie put a hand on his chest and leaned back on his heel with a hurt expression on his face.

“Since when have I cared?” I crossed my arms.

“Well then,” he gasped, causing me to chuckle. He was trying to keep the offended look on his face, but ultimately failed and decided to chuckle along with me.

“Umm, what is that?” Stan’s voice cracked and we all turned our attention to the end of the hall. A shadowy figure stood there.

Just stood there.

The feeling in my stomach came back again as Hopper decided to walk closer to it. I looked at the man in disbelief, and told myself to not leave from this spot. I got even more frustrated when the rest of the group decided to go closed it. Has everyone just lost their sanity today? I’m not leaving this spot for the life of me. Richie turned around and noticed my frozen state.

“Eddie come on.” He harshly whispered and whipped his hand towards himself so I would get the gist and follow him.

“Are you fucking serious? You run away from the danger, not towards it.” I whispered matter-of-factly.

“That’s why Hopper’s got a gun and Mike has a bat.” Richie retorted.

“No, I’m not going.” I shook my head. “How about we go the other way or wait for something to happen?” I suggested. The group was almost at the end of hall at this point, they didn’t even notice we were gone. Maybe, not splitting up would’ve been in a better idea.

“Eddie, let’s just go.”

“Nope.”

“Eddie, seriously-“

“I want to live today!” I whisper-shouted.

“That’s why we shouldn’t be away from the group.” Richie replied.

“There’s nothing here?” I heard Mike say from the end of the hall.

“What?” Richie asked.

“There’s no one here.” Will called back.

“Well, lets just keep going.” Hopper sighed. I took a deep breath, really wishing I had brought my inhaler with me and continued to wa-

“WHAT THE F-“ I shouted, as an imaginary force pulled my leg down, making me fall to ground. I was starting to be dragged down the other hallway next to me.

“RICHIE!” I shrieked, as I grabbed hold of the corner wall. Richie ran towards me and grabbed my hand trying to pull me back.

“Guys, help!” Richie called out to the rest of the group. My breathing sped up, I really didn’t want to die. I wanted to grow up and get married, get a job, have children. Ok, maybe I’m getting a little hysterical, but I AM CURRENTLY BEING DRAGGED BY SOME MAGIC FORCE INTO A DARK HALLWAY!

“Just don’t let go,” Richie instructed.

“NO FUCKING SHIT!” I shouted. Hopper finally came around and told me to reach out my hand that was currently attached the wall.

“What if I slip?” I asked, with my voice cracking vigorously.

“Just reach out your hand.” Hopper demanded. I reached out my wrapped up hand and reached for Hopper’s.

Instead his hand slipped from my slippery cast.

Now it was only Richie supporting me. I was trusting him with my life right now.

“Richie, don’t let go. P-Please don’t.” I stammered, as I felt something watery fill my eyes.

“I’m trying Eddie, I’m trying.” Richie grunted, using his full force. I looked behind me onto my foot. This force was strong. Too strong. If Richie holds on for any longer, it won’t just be me who’s taken. Then I remembered what (Y/N) said. IT wanted to spilt us up, they’re going to take us one by one.

And I was next.

This was probably El doing this. She’s telekinetic, it makes sense. Maybe I could see where Mike went, or I could die. I really hope it isn’t the latter. This could end in multiple ways, and I wasn’t letting Richie be apart of them.

“Hey Rich?” I asked.

“Yea?” He said, still using his full force. I thought about what my last words would be and couldn’t come up with anything and just said-

“Tell my mommy I love her.” Wait! I didn’t want to say that! Well, I do love my mother, but I didn’t want it to be so cliché. Oh well, fuck it. I struggled to get free of Richie’s grip.

“Eddie, what are you doing?” Mike asked. I tuned him out and continued to get free, until our hands were no longer connected.

I was dragged into the abyss ahead of me.

“EDDIE!” Was the last thing I heard, before I blacked out.


	31. The Sedative

~~~~

**(Y/N) POV**

**I RAN TOWARDS THE FIGURE, IGNORING THE PROTESTS BEHIND ME AND RUNNING** towards the screaming. What they were saying was muffled so I didn’t really know what they were shouting about. All of a sudden the figure disappeared, so I ran faster. It was until I saw the other group at the edge of another corridor, holding something back. I did a head count and scanned through all of them.

Then I noticed Eddie wasn’t there.

I sprinted towards the group and caught the last glance of Eddie being dragged into nothingness.

“EDDIE!” I screamed and started running towards him, before someone pulled me back.

“LET ME FUCKING GO! EDDIE!” I screamed, as I realized it was Hopper holding me back. I eventually stopped struggling and dropped down to my knees, holding my head in my hands and letting hot tears run down my face, but quickly wiped them away. I couldn’t let my emotions, hold me back from getting my friends. I stood up weakly and sniffed.

“El pr-probably has him and Mike too.” I hiccuped weakly. “We need to go this way.” I pointed in the direction where Eddie disappeared.

“That place is too dark.” Hopper retorted.

“We have flashlights, do we not?” I snapped. All of them stayed silent, even Hopper, but I didn’t think much of it. “And we’re not splitting up anymore, if this is going to happen. Call the others, we’re all going down this way.” I instructed boldly. Mike and Stan went to go get the others, looking quite scared I might add. I turned around and walked a little further into the corridor. I squinted my eyes in attempt to see something, it was mostly just how every other hall looked.

But darker.

_“She scares me, sometimes.”_

_“It’s really hot, though.”_

I turned around and notice the whole group was there, but I’m pretty sure I know who said what. “Well, adults, lead the way.” I gestured for them to go in front. They all hesitantly walked into the dark corridor with flashlights at the helm. Bill handed me a long black flashlight and I flicked the switch, turning it on. I wanted a hand to take so I knew I wasn’t alone, but I knew Richie wasn’t just going to forgive me that easily. I decided to just go near Dustin. No, I wasn’t trying to make Richie jealous. I’m not like that, I’m not even going hold Dustin’s hand. I just wanted someone to be near. I walked near Dustin who looked scared as ever.

(Mike W.’s POV)

I gasped for air as I opened my eyes. I looked around to figure out my surroundings and realized I was in the control room that was in front of the room where the gate was once before. I then realized I was tied up to a chair. I wiggled to get out of the tight rope surrounding my body, but it was no use.

“I tried doing that too.” I snapped my head towards-

“Eddie?” I squinted my eyes, as they came back into focus. He was in the same predicament, sitting on chair, tied up. “You got-“

“Taken? Yea.” He sighed. “I thought maybe I would be able to find you, and I did but-“ he gestured to the fact he was... Y’know.

“Did you see El?” I asked him. Although, I wanted to get out of here, El was a priority. Hell, she was my number 1 priority.

“Yup,” he nodded towards the broken glass in front of us. El was there on the elevator that took them underground when the gate was massive.

“El!” I shouted for attention. Luckily, she turned around to face me. Her expression was very annoyed. She didn’t look like the same girl I knew. She looked demonized, like the life was sucked out of her. El walked towards us until she was right in my face. Every bone in my body was preventing me from kissing her right now. I really shouldn’t be thinking about this right now, she’s literally possessed.

“El, please it’s me.” I whispered and leaned my forehead against hers. Weirdly, she didn’t pull away she let it happen.

“I don’t know who you are.” She whispered back. Those words just... broke me. The girl I’ve lo- liked for two years doesn’t know me.

“I’m Mike. Mike Wheeler. You know who I am.” I tried to jog her memory.

“No, no I don’t.”

“Yes you do.”

“The girl you know is gone.” She snarled. I was taken back by her aggressiveness. She then turned around to leave.

“Wait!” I called out.

“What?” She groaned.

“Kiss me.” I said.

“What?” She asked.

“What?” Eddie repeated, who I forgot was here.

“Just kiss me and if you still don’t remember me, I’ll leave you alone.” I had a plan, it was risky but worth it.

“Hey dude, what are you doing?” Eddie asked from beside me. I saw El still contemplating whether she should do it or not, so I gave him a glimpse of the sedative in my pocket. Eddie’s eyes widened and caught on to what I was doing. He nodded and stayed silent, letting me carry out my plan.

“Are you going to try anything stupid?” She asked, so I shook my head vigorously in response.

“Fine,” she sighed and walked up to me. “You try anything, your dead.”

“Ok,” my voice cracked. She smashed her lips into mine very roughly, it wasn’t those soft ones I was used to. This felt forced and fake, not subtle and real. This wasn’t El. I heard Eddie gag beside me, but I didn’t pay much attention to him. My eyes were closed, but I discreetly took the sedative out of my pocket. I was careful not to make any suspicious movements. Then I aimed for her waist and punctured it there, injecting the liquid into her body. She jerked backwards, breaking the kiss and lazily leaned side to side.

“Yoooou little-“ She slurred before collapsing on the ground.

“That was disgusting to watch.” Eddie cringed.

“You could’ve looked away.” I furrowed my eyebrows.

“I did, but you guys were so loud.” He shuddered.

“Just come here and untie me.” I gestured for him to come over.

“How?”

“Come behind me, turn and try to untie me, then I’ll untie you.” I instructed.

“Ok,” he shrugged. He started screeching his chair towards mine, making little bounces with each shift. The sound was rather annoying but I had to deal with it. He finally came behind my chair and started fumbling with the rope. He could only use one since the other was wrapped up in a cast so the process was slow. Eventually, the grip around my body became loose and I wiggled out of the the chair. I threw the rope away and began to untie Eddie.

“No offence, but your girlfriend is crazy.” Eddie sighed.

“She’s possessed, what do you expect?” I threw the rope around Eddie away in the same place mine was. I went over to El and picked her up bridal style. Even in this state she looked pretty. I smiled at how peaceful she looked, even though she was in this state because I sedated her.

“C’mon let’s go find the others and burn that, as you said ‘motherfucker’ out of her.” Eddie instructed.

“Ok, I said motherfucker because I was taken over with anger. You can’t judge me.” I rolled my eyes.

“Whatever you say.” Eddie put his hands up in defence, smiling. I tried to keep a straight face, but I couldn’t help but chuckle softly.

“Where can we do this without her killing everybody?” Eddie asked. I started thinking for a moment where we could go that wouldn’t get anyone hurt and she couldn’t get out of easily. Her powers have grown so much, its hard to think of a place that would contain her. Then I remembered one place.

Right in this lab.

“I know somewhere, it can hold her but I don’t know for how long.”

“I don’t like that answer.” Eddie shuddered.

“It’s the best one I’ve got.” 


	32. The Official Confirmation Of Mucas

  
**(General POV)**

**WHILE EDDIE AND MIKE W. WERE LOOKING FOR THE PLACE MIKE HAD THOUGHT** of for El, and the rest of the group was trying their best to find the pair and the telekinetic girl, Lucas was in a small hospital room with Jonathon and his unconscious friend. Max had still not woken up after all this time and Lucas was worrying more than you could imagine.

“She should’ve been up by now.” Lucas tapped his foot vigorously, while biting his nails. Jonathon looked at the boy with remorse. He felt the same way when Will was... well, when Will was going through everything. It’s a gut-wrenching experience that no one should have to face. Yet, here Lucas is, with someone he genuinely cares about.

“You’ve just got to let her rest, ok?” Jonathon patted the boy’s back and gave him a reassuring smile. Lucas nodded, although his nervous expression never left his face and the feeling never left his body. “How about you talk to her?” The older boy suggested.

“What?”

“Just say something. Anything. Maybe it’ll trigger her to wake up.” He suggested.

“I don’t know what to say, though.” Lucas sighed, pinching his nose with his hands. Jonathon sighed also, trying to think of something that might work. A good idea came into his head, eventually. It wasn’t perfect, but it was worth a shot. Jonathon went to sit beside Lucas and turned him to himself.

“How about you tell me a memory. Like a really funny or happy memory you two shared.” He asked. Lucas started trying to think of the millions of memories that Max and him had shared.

Then he thought of one.

It was one of his favourite memories of him and Max. It was a moment that was a real turning point in their friendship.

“When we talked near the quarry.” He smiled, remembering the intimate moment. “It was a few months after the snowball. We had kissed there, but I guess that’s all it was. I wanted to talk about it so badly, so I had called her to meet me at the cliff of the quarry. She came with a black eye. It was her brother who gave it to her, but I don’t remember exactly why he did it. All I know was that I was mad, really mad. But, she was... crying. The tough madmax was crying.” Lucas scoffed surprisingly. “I’d never seen her cry like that, and it was me who got to experience her like this first. Then we talked.” He sighed. “We talked hours about the stupidest things. School, Mike and Eleven, Our families. It was just us, and our conversation. I still remember the last thing she said to me. It was-“

“This was a weirdly interesting talk, stalker,” a weak voice spoke up. Lucas’s eyes widened and his head snapped to the awake red headed girl.

“Max!” He exclaimed, practically jumping onto her and hugging her as tight as he could. Jonathon smiled, watching the pair. He was quite surprised, because he didn’t actually know it would work. He just wanted to make Lucas feel better.

“What happened?” Max asked groggily.

“What’s the last thing you remember?” Lucas asked.

“Being thrown back a million fucking feet by El.” Max sighed, touching her pounding forehead. Obviously who threw her wasn’t El, but she was kind of mad at her for doing that. But, it was one of those feelings that would go away eventually.

“Yeah, she took Mike.” Jonathon cut in.

“What?” Max furrowed her eyebrows, and started to worry for her friend. “Have they found him?”

“We don’t know.” Lucas replied. “Right after it happened, we took you here.”

“And you stayed with me the whole time?” Max raised an eyebrow. She had never thought someone could care so much about... her. It was a weird feeling, but she liked it. It made her feel special.

“Of course I did.” Lucas smiled.

“You really are a stalker.” Max joked, causing Lucas to playfully roll his eyes. She hadn’t called him that for a year. The nickname eventually wore off and she stopped using it.

“So, you’re bringing it back, huh?” Lucas shook his head, looking down at his lap and smiling. You could tell how flustered he was.

“Just this once.” The girl reached her hand out and tilted his head to face hers. Their eyes connected with each other and they felt something. That feeling when you don’t know what to say or how to say it. Butterflies manifest in the stomach and brush on the surface, giving you that tingling feeling. Yeah, that. Lucas knew what he wanted to do when his eyes flickered down to her lips, but he didn’t want to go so fast. The girl had just came out of a unconscious state. In fact, he was starting to think he might pass out.

“Umm Max?” He asked with his eyes still staring at her lips.

“Yeah,” she replied dismissively.

“Can I-“

“Shut up and do it stalker.” She whispered, cutting him off and reading his mind. Lucas smiled, knowing she wanted the same thing. He leaned in slowly and firmly placed his lips on hers. It felt like fireworks had exploded around them. This one as better than the snowball. Definitely.

“Ok, guys, keep it PG.” Jonathon cut in, Who the pair forgot was in the room. They were so preoccupied with themselves, it felt like they were the only two people in the room. They broke apart after 4 seconds, satisfied with the short and sweet kiss.

“Does this mean we’re like-“ Max couldn’t finish her sentence and she didn’t know why. She knew deep down that she wanted to be with Lucas. But, now, she’s beginning to process it’s actually happening.

“Do you want to?” Lucas asked.

“I guess?” She shrugged weakly.

“So, does this mean your officially my girlfriend?”

“Yeah, I guess so.” She chuckled softly.

“Totally tubular.” Lucas let out a breathy laugh.

“Your insufferable.” Max shook her head, grinning like an idiot.

“If only I had my camera.” Jonathon cut in once again. The younger two looked at the older boy with playful disbelieving expressions on their faces. “I ruined the moment, didn’t I?”

“Yea, totally.” Max nodded, but still managed to give him a heart-warming smile.

“Are you strong enough to get up?” Lucas asked, turning back to the redhead.

“I’m a little dizzy, but I think I’ll be alright.” Max nodded weakly, and ripped the warm blanket away from her body. She positioned herself in a sitting stance, before landing her feet on the floor. Immediately, she felt the room spinning slowly and placed a hand on her forehead. Luckily, the feeling only lasted a few seconds and she fully removed herself from the bed. She stumbled a bit, only to be caught be Lucas who had a hand on her back and one on her wrist. “I’m fine, I’m good.” She gently pushed him back and gave him a reassuring smile. Finally, she stood upright and started to feel better already.

“Are you completely okay?” Jonathon asked with genuine concern. He didn’t want to see the girl collapse randomly on the ground, especially since there’s something out there that could kill them all.

“Yup.” Max smiled weakly.

“Ok, but Lucas, you should still help her walk.” Jonathon instructed.

“I was thinking the same thing.” Lucas turned to the older boy. He guided Max’s arm over his shoulder and slid his own around her own to keep her upright. “Is this okay?” He asked.

“Yea, Yea I’m good.” She smiled, and the faintest sign of blush creeped up on her cheeks.

“Ok, just stay behind me and stay close.” Jonathon spoke boldly. The other two nodded, though you could see that they were scared to death. Jonathon placed his hand on the knob and slowly rotated it around. The door made a creaking sound as it opened. Jonathon stepped out only to be met with two boys carrying and unconscious girl.

“Mike, Eddie?” Jonathon said, with a startled expression. Max and Lucas ran out together to see Mike and Eddie with Mike carrying an unconscious El in his hands.

“How did you-“

“Long story.” Eddie cut Lucas off from asking about how they got El in the state she was in.

“We need to find El’s ‘punishment’ room.” Mike instructed.

“You mean the place they put her in when she wasn’t cooperating properly?” Lucas asked. El had actually told the group awhile ago what had happened to her in place they were standing in right now. It was a moment that brought them closer as friends.

“Yes, they put her in their for a reason. It could restrain her from using her powers.” Mike suggested.

“What about the others? We need to find them.” Max cut in.

“We have no time.” Eddie spoke up. “We’ve been fumbling around this place and that sedative doesn’t last forever.”

“Ok, Umm do we have the heaters?” Jonathon asked. Mike froze in his spot when he remembered that the heaters were still in the car. It seemed like the whole group remembered this too.

“How do we get them all the way here?” Max asked. No one has an answer. They didn’t want to go upstairs, simply because it was too scary and they were already down here. Then Mike had a thought.

“Does anyone here know BASIC?” Mike asked the group. The group looked around to see if anyone knew the computer programming software.

No one did.

Mike sighed and tapped his foot before concluding with-

“Looks like we have to fumble through it then.” He shrugged.

“Why do we need someone who knows BASIC anyway?” Eddie questioned.

“Maybe, we could send heat down to that small room so we don’t have to go upstairs.” Mike replied.

“Is the room that far from the control room?” Max asked.

“We were just in the control room, we didn’t go that far from it.”

“So, it shouldn’t be that far.” Jonathon cut in.

“Let’s go.”


	33. Burn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double update, because I forgot yesterday.

**(Y/N) POV**

**AFTER GOING THROUGH A VERY DARK CORRIDOR WITH THE ONLY LIGHT** coming from our flashlights, we finally arrived at some sort of control room. Their were two chairs collapsed on the ground with rope lying in the ground beside them. Hopper went into the room, kicking the chairs out of the way and looked at the computer.

“Does anyone here know BASIC?” He asked the group.

“I do,” Dustin approached Hopper. “The AV team teaches you a lot.” He nudged me on the way, making me chuckle. I was so focused on what was in front of me, I didn’t know the jealous expression on Richie’s face.

“Do you think you could see through the security cameras here?” Hopper asked the boy.

“Yea, I think so.” Dustin nodded and grabbed one of the fallen chairs to sit on next to Hopper.

“Ok, do it. Steve you stay with Dustin along with some other kids. Nancy, your coming with me to find Mike.” Hopper instructed. I gritted my teeth, not wanting to be annoying and say splitting up is a bad idea. Hopper took me, Richie and Bev along. Will, Mike H., Stan and Bill stayed behind, much to Bill’s dismay.

“P-P-Please be s-s-safe.” Bill hugged Bev tightly.

“I’m not leaving this place without you.” Bev said to him and hesitantly let go. Their hands lingered for awhile before they fully let go. I grabbed Bev’s hand and we sent each other sincere smiles.

“Take c-c-care of her, (Y/N).” I heard Bill call out.

“Already on it!” I called back, before turning back to Bev. “He really likes you Bev.” I smiled.

“Heh, yea he does.” She chuckled softly. We turned our attention back to the corridor ahead of us and the grip on our hands became tighter. I was trying to get my pulse to beat slower, but it was no use. The fear wasn’t coming from the atmosphere itself, it was coming from the fact that anyone could be taken from us.

It was dead silent at the moment, but I don’t think anyone had anything to say. I looked to Richie who was walking close to Hopper, but he wasn’t talking either. It was surprising in this instance because in this situation, he would be talking non-stop to distract himself from the situation he was in. The guilt still clouded around my head from him. I should’ve talked to him about it first, before I decided to do it. What’s worse was that nothing changed. El was still possessed, we lost Mike and Eddie, and there’s the looming threat that someone else could be taken. A thudding sound snapped me out of my thoughts as Hopper put up his gun in a defensive stance. Bev and I instinctively went closer to the older pair. I was right next to Richie which I didn’t even notice because of the new threat we were about to face. I looked next to me in his direction and apparently he did the same. Our eyes locked for one second, before we both turned away. I felt heat rush up to my cheeks as I looked ahead of me. Luckily, it was dark so no one could see my face. The thudding sound was heard once more. It sounded like it was coming from the room on the right. The door was wide open and more sound was starting to flourish. A figure came rushing out, holding rope in its hands. This figure wasn’t like the other one, this one was shorter. It had a cast on? It wasn’t until I saw the letter ‘V’ standing out on the figure’s cast that my eyes widened.

_I put that there._

“Eddie?” I called out, pushing past Nancy and Hopper. The boy snapped his head up, before dropping the rope in surprise.

“Guys?” Eddie’s eyes widened. I ran over towards him and gave him a spine-crushing hug.

“You’re-you’re okay!” I exclaimed, breaking the hug. “Eds, I thought you were dead.” I breathlessly chuckled.

“Don’t worry, so did I.” He nodded vigorously.

“What happened to you? How’d you escape?” I asked.

“Well, I-“

“Mike?!” Nancy shouted out. I snapped my head up to see Mike coming out of the room. Nancy ran up to him and gave him the same hug I gave Eddie. Mike hugged back, snuggling his head into Nancy’s shoulder.

“Next time, tell about your stupid plans before you carry them out.” She flicked his head, making him jerk back in response and rub his head. Eddie went on to hug Richie then Bev, telling us what happened between him, Mike and El.

“So, Jane is in there?” Hopper asked and went into the surprisingly small room to see his daughter tied to a chair, unconscious.

“What kind of kinky shit is this?” Richie spoke up. I desperately wanted to smack him upside the head, but decided against it.

“We’re going to burn it out of her here.” Mike explained.

“What about the heaters?” Nancy asked.

“We’re going to use the central heaters in here instead of going all the way back outside.” Eddie said.

“How?” I asked.

“Using the monitors.” Mike said shutting the enormous door with full force. He then turned the wheel, locking it shut.

“Dustin is already there, he was going use the monitors to look for you.” Bev spoke up.

“Then let’s go.” Mike pushed passed us, practically running towards the control room.

***

“Just-just turn it up slowly, okay.” Mike instructed Dustin. Lucas, Max and Jonathon had eventually met up with us. We just didn’t see them until they noticed Mike and Eddie weren’t with them, then came to the control room and met up with us. There was a camera in El’s small room. She was still asleep with her head hanging down.

“I’m turning it up as slowly as possible.” Dustin assured Mike. The heat was still at a low volume, it wasn’t drastic.

“I don’t think I can watch this.” Stan said, walking away from the monitor.

“Same with me.” Mike H. sighed turning away from the monitor.

“Count me in.” Richie nodded and joined Mike H, and Stan. Me, on the other hand, was still staring at the monitor.

(General POV)

“What’s going on with you and (Y/N)?” Stan asked, sparking up the conversation. If Richie was being honest, he didn’t know what was going on with him and the girl. They weren’t talking at all, in fact he thought she was deliberately talking to everyone else except him. Was she mad at him? Why would she be mad? It should Richie who’s mad at her, not vice versa.

“I actually don’t know Stan.” Richie sighed, playing with his fingers.

“Why don’t you talk to her?” Mike H, cut in.

“Look at her.” Richie lazily pointed to the girl who was hunched over Dustin, watching El’s movements. Mike and Stan glanced over to her, but they were still confused. “I’m not on her mind right now. She’s too busy to talk to me.” He continued, shrugging lazily and leaned his head against the wall.

“Do you forgive her?” Mike asked.

“I don’t know about that.” Richie shook his head.

“Richie, she did it for-“

“-a reason? Yea, I know.” Richie finished Stan’s sentence. The other two boys looked at each other with ‘i don’t know what to say’ faces. They’ve never had girlfriends, and even if they did it wouldn’t be this kind of situation they’d have to face.

“Richie, I suggest you just do something.” Mike finally spoke up.

“What do you mean by that. That’s so fucking vague.” Richie furrowed his eyebrows.

“Richie, you do realize your mad at her because you care about her. A lot. You didn’t want her to be in danger and you got mad when she chose to. If you want to forgive her, which I assume you do, show her that you care.” Mike explained.

“What Mike said.” Stab cut in. Richie and Mike lightly chuckled at Stan’s comment. Richie soon realized Mike was right, he does care about her. He might even lo-. Okay, maybe he’s not there yet, but he does really like her. He needed to do something, but what should it be? Maybe, when an opportunity comes he should take it.

“Thanks Mike, you too Stan.” He smiled at his two friends. Their somber moment was cut off when they heard screaming coming from the end of the hall.

“El.” Stan muttered. Her screams could probably be heard from town. Everyone covered their ears at the ear-splitting sound.

(Y/N) was still staring at the screen as she watched El use her powers to get out of the chair. Luckily, she couldn’t get out of the room, so they were still safe. Mike watched in horror as he saw his girl in pain.

“Dustin, turn it down.” Mike pleaded. The heat was only at medium at this point, but they knew they couldn’t turn it down. Dustin ignored his friend’s protest, he wanted that stupid thing out of his friend, even if it meant watching her in pain.

“Dustin! Turn it down!” Mike demanded, though the curly-headed boy still didn’t listen. Instead, he turned it up higher which resulted in the screaming getting louder. Mike tried to push past Dustin in attempt to turn the temperature down, but was stopped by Hopper.

“LET ME GO!” Mike screamed, struggling to get out of the man’s grasp. Tears threatened to stream down his face as he saw the boy in pain. It was the first time in a long time he’s felt this kind of concern since Sarah. Now, he had to watch his new daughter be tortured. Their was sweat pouring down from every part of her body and she was alone too. All alone in a claustrophobic room. Nancy eventually grabbed her brother and wrapped her arms around him tightly. The boy cried into her shoulder, trying to tune out the heart-breaking screams of the girl.

“Guys, her neck.” Bev pointed the black and white screen. Everyone who was staring at the monitor noticed the black veins spreading on her neck.

“It’s working.” Jonathon reassured them.

“It is?” (Y/N) turned to him.

“Apparently, the same thing happened to me. So, yeah it’s working.” Will nodded. The group continued to watch their friend with black veins spreading across her body. All of a sudden, the lights started to flicker. It was El doing this, since the amount of pain she was in was staggering. Then black smoke started to swirl around as it came out of her mouth. The smoke grew bigger and bigger as it came out. It was disgustingly gruesome to watch.

“Oh my god.” Eddie gagged, almost actually throwing up. (Y/N) cringed at the screen in front of her, but she knew it was working. It was coming out of her. The smoke seemed to get a mind of its own and slipped through the door of the room. It then wooshed past the group and went into the massive whole where the gate once was. They looked back at the screen to see El was once again unconscious. Mike immediately broke away from Nancy and ran down the hall to where the girl was. He ferociously turned the wheel and opened the door. El was lying on the floor, covered in sweat. Mike didn’t care one bit and crouched down over her. He cupped her face and brought her closer to him.

“El?” He spoke to her.

No response.

“El, it’s me Mike.” He tried again.

No response.

“Please.” He whispered and pressed his forehead to hers. The tears came once again and he closed his eyes wishing it would all just go away. The stress, the pain, the shame, all of it. Mike just wanted to go back to how it was. When it was only a few weeks until El was finally allowed to come out of her cabin. When she could finally go to school with the party, learn some games at the arcade, go to the movies. It couldn’t happen anymore. He cradled her in his arms and rocked her back and forth.

“I love you.” He whispered. It was so quiet, he didn’t even hear it himself. But, apparently those three words were enough.

“Mike?”


	34. Planning

**(General POV)  
**

**MIKE’S HEAS SHOT UP FROM EL’S SHOULDER AS HE SAW HER EYES OPEN** slowly. He chuckled softly, blinking the tears away from his eyes to see his girl more clearly.

“El?” He smiled as the girl weakly sat up from his grasp. “You’re-You’re alive.” He hiccuped.

“What happened?” El asked groggily, tapping her lips together. “Are you okay?” Mike shook his head, wondering why she was asking him if he was okay.

“Am I okay? I’m great now.” Mike stroked a strand of hair out of her face.

“Where are we?” El asked, looking around her surroundings. Her eyes widened when she was in the same room she was in when she didn’t cooperate. “Mike, get me out of here. I don’t want to be here.” El started fidgeting, letting Mike know that she wanted to get out of the room. Mike picked her up bridal style and carried her out of the room.

“Jane!” Hopper called from the control room, now running towards the couple. Mike put El down so she could go towards her father and Hopper engulfed her in a spine-crushing hug. “What part of stay in the cabin do you not understand?” He joked, as El awkwardly smiled in front of him.

“I wanted to help.” She shrugged, breaking off the hug and walking back, hand in hand with Mike. “And I have information.”

***  
(Y/N) POV

“What’s the battle of wills?” I asked El, who was snuggled into Mike on the ground.

“I don’t know, he just kept repeating it.” El shrugged, fiddling with her fingers.

“Oh!” Ben snapped his fingers. “It’s when two people disagree and refuse to change their ideals.”

“So what? We’re supposed to talk to the thing?” Eddie furrowed his eyebrows. Everyone looked at each other with unsure looks. Although, this was a new piece of information, we didn’t know how to use it. It wasn’t until Hopper walked up to me and the rest of the losers and asked-

“You said the clown wasn’t ITs true form right?” He asked us.

“No, we don’t think so. It’s taken multiple forms, so we don’t know which ones the actual one.” Bev explained.

“So, maybe we could do that.” Hopper muttered.

“Do what?” I asked.

“The truest form would be the weakest!” Dustin cut in, seemingly catching on to what Hopper said.

“How would it be ITs weakest form?” Max asked.

“Because, it’s not hiding in anything. It’s vulnerable if ITs not disguised in anything.” Dustin replied.

“So, how would we get IT in it’s true form?” Stan asked.

“The battle of wills!” Mike H. exclaimed. “IT would get frustrated to the point where IT would be forced to go into ITs true form.” I felt a giddy feeling inside of me as we started to connect the dots together. We were coming closer to defeating this thing once and for all.

“But how does this help us stop the mind flayer?” Nancy cut in.

“IT is like the mind flayer’s right hand. If IT is gone, the mind flayer would be too.” I explained.

“Ok, but how d-d-do we find IT?” Bill asked the group.

“We might need to open the gate.” I sighed, looking down at my fingers.

“It makes sense. IT would be more comfortable in ITs true form in the upside down. That’s ITs dimension.” Lucas spoke up.

“Where’s IT now?” Ben asked. I noticed a couple glances look my way as I caught on that they wanted me to see through ITs mind.

“I’ll look,” I spoke up. I did my best to avoid contact with you-know-who, but it didn’t look like he was trying to stop me. Why was that?

“Just do it fast, we don’t have much time.” Hopper instructed. I nodded in response and relaxed my body. I cleared my mind to get a stronger grasp on the other’s mind and closed my eyes. Once again, my vision went black until it came into focus.

“ITs in the upside down.” I told the group, though my vision was still in the shadowy place. It looked like IT was a few more feet off the ground than usual. I then realized IT didn’t look like a clown anymore, there were spider legs instead of human ones. Was this ITs true form? The movements were more staggered than a normal person working and ITs skin looked more rough and hairy, definitely like a spider.

“I think I’m looking at ITs true form.” I told the group.

“What is it?” I heard Dustin’s voice echo through my ears.

“It’s a giant... spider thing. More or less.” I did the best explanation I could muster.

“Great.” Steve’s voice echoed sarcastically.

“What’s IT doing?” Hopper asked.

“Walking somewhere, it kind of looks like its waiting for something.” I shrugged.

“I’m waiting for El.” My eyes widened as I heard ITs voice spoke out.

“You can-“

“See you, yes I can.” IT answered, cutting me off. “I’ll be waiting for El. In whatever form I see fit.” My vision went back to the control room and I felt some coursing through the mind as it physically left my body. I didn’t notice the cloud of smoke coming from my mouth until my eyes were open. I fell backwards, shaking profusely until I went back to normal. At that moment, I realized I wasn’t going to be able to see through IT anymore.

“(Y/N)!” I heard Bev call as she pulled me back up into a hug, making me hug her back and snuggled my head into her shoulder. I didn’t see how fast I was breathing until it slowed down, and took a deep breath.

“It knows about our plan. It wants El to come.” I looked up from Bev’s shoulder. Everyone’s eyes widened and they turned to El who looked scared out of her mind.

“I’m going to stop IT.” She nodded shakily. “I’m going to open that gate and stop IT.”

“El, you aren’t going alone.” Hopper stood up. “We’re a pretty good team aren’t we?” Hopper smiled at her daughter, causing her to smile back.

“I’m going too,” Mike H stood up. “You need all the help you can get.” He nodded.

“Well everyone can’t just start standing up!” Eddie exclaimed. “Some people need to stay behind. I volunteer myself.” He shot his hand up.

“Well, I’m not one of those people.” I stood up. I’d like to see the last look of that motherfucking thing before IT dies. “I want it to suffer.” I clenched my fists tightly.

“Ok, so I think you you you you you you you you you you you and you should stay.” Hopper pointed to Stan, Dustin, Ben, Bill, Bev, Max, Lucas, Eddie, Will, Richie and Mike W.

“No! I’m going!” Mike W. stood up walking over to Hopper.

“Listen kid-“

“I am not letting you kill that thing without me there.” Mike growled, taking the handgun out of Hopper’s holster. Hopper glanced from his now empty holster to the gun Mike was holding with wide eyes.

“What?” Mike asked.

“Nothing.” Hopper nodded with an approved look on his face. “Looks like you’ve got a real weapon, kid.” He patted Mike’s back. I chuckled at their little bonding moment, but soon made a straight face in determination.

“Jonathon, Nancy, take care of the kids here. Steve, your coming with me.” Hopper instructed.

“Do they still have the suits?” Will asked.

“I don’t know if there are any in our sizes.” Mike W sighed.

“We can makeshift them.” I cut in, nodding at my new idea. Mike nodded also, agreeing with my plan.

“Ok, guys, your job is to keep an eye on the gate. Nothing can get out of there.” Hopper instructed the kids staying in the lab.

“How?” Bev asked.

“Keep it warm!” Will exclaimed. “We can make a barrier.”

“A circle of fire!” Dustin spoke up.

“Excuse me, what?” Jonathon cut in.

“We can line the entrance with fire, and put it out when you guys come back. Remember, they hate fire.” Will explained.

“Ok, we’ll do that.” Nancy nodded.

“So, let’s go over this.” Hopper huddled the group together. “You guys are going to keep the other monsters out by creating a barrier, while keeping the gate open. We are going into the upside down to hopefully stop IT and the mind flayer, then we’ll return there and El will close the gate. For good.” Hopper explained. Everyone looked to each other for confirmation and nodded at Hopper.

“Let’s do it then.”

 

 


	35. Different Positions

**(? POV)**

**“ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO DO THIS?” HE ASKED, GIVING** me another chance to back down.

“Yes I’m sure.” I nodded, not backing away from this. What I was doing was not for me, it was for someone else and I don’t care if she’s mad at me for it.

“Who else knows about this?” He asked, crossing his arms and tapping his foot.

“The whole group staying behind.” I shrugged. He sighed, pursing his lips together.

“Ok fine, you can do it.” I nodded, though I was nervous. If I did this, I wouldn’t be able-. No I can’t think like that, I can do this. There was only one reason I was doing it.

For her.

I’m risking my life for her.

(Y/N) POV

Mike H and I retrieved goggles, gloves and rags to protect ourselves from the atmosphere of the upside down. Hopper and Steve didn’t need them since they were using the full suits the lab had so it was just for the kids.

“Are you ready for this?” Mike H asked me as we walked back to the control room.

“Of course not, but then again I’ve never been ready for any of this.” I breathlessly chuckled. Mike stopped walking and sighed, making stumble trying to stop. I grew confused as to why he stopped.

“Is everything okay?” I asked him, laying a hand on his shoulder.

“I’m terrified (Y/N).” He whispered, looking down at the floor. I pulled him towards me and hugged him tightly.

“I am too, but hey? If we die, we die together.” I smiled sadly, breaking the hug.

“I don’t know if I’m ready to die.” He wiped a stray tear from his eye.

“Is anybody ready to die?” I questioned, tilting my head to the side.

“No, I guess not.” He sniffed, loosening his grip on the items. I didn’t even know he was clutching them so tightly.

“We’re going to do this, okay?” I reassured him. He nodded and we continued walking down the hall. We saw that Steve and Hopper were already dressed up, and Richie was talking to Hopper about something I couldn’t hear.

“We got it!” I called out, catching their attention. I threw two goggles, rags and gloves to Mike W for him and El, then I handed my extra one to Mike H. He smiled at me, making me smile back and nod.

“Hey (Y/N)?” Richie called to me, making me stiffen. We hadn’t talked at all and now he felt like a stranger to me, not the guy I could tell anything to. Were we even dating anymore? It didn’t feel like it all, and it hurt.

It hurt a lot.

“Yeah, Richie?” I answered taking a step forward and purposefully looked everywhere except for him.

“I just wanted to say good luck.” He smiled genuinely. I smiled weakly in response, kind of hoping he would forgive me.

“Thank you. Good luck to you.” I nodded, still trying to avoid his eyes. Instead, I glanced down and noticed he was holding the items to go into the upside down, making me furrow my eyebrows. “Why do you have that?”

“Oh! I just found these lying around, but you guys had already left to get them so...” He explained, but there was something about his tone th-

“(Y/N)!” Steve called out, snapping my attention to him. “Time to go!” He slung his bat over his shoulder. I turned back to Richie who had a sad look on his face.

It might be the last time I’m seeing him.

“Bye, Rich.” I nodded, trying my best to sound strong. He then pulled me in for a hug, and it took me awhile to process and hug back.

“I forgive you.” He whispered. I snuggled into his shoulder, and a tear fell out.

“Thanks.” I whispered back, smiling in grasp.

“And I’m sorry.” He broke the hug. I furrowed my eyebrows, looking at him weirdly.

“What do you mean?” I tilted my head in confusion.

“Jonathon!” Richie called out, getting me more confused by the minute. Then I felt a tight grasp on my arm and turned around to see Jonathon. Holding me back?

“Jonathon, what’re you doing?” I asked him. He just looked at me with remorse and said sorry. I turned back to Richie who was putting on the goggles, put the rag around his mouth and nose, and putting on the glove. My eyes widened in realization to what he was doing.

He was taking my place.

“Richie.” I called out to him, but he ignored me and turned around to walk towards where the elevator was.

“Richie!” I called out again and tried to get out of Jonathon’s grasp, but he was really strong. El was beginning to open the gate and Stan and Will were putting kerosene at the edge of the cliff around it.

“Jonathon! I swear to God, let me go!” I growled, struggling harder, but the harder I struggled the tighter the grasp. The gate was open and big enough to go through. My screaming became louder and my legs were kicking outward, but it was no use.

“RICHIE! STOP, I’M SERIOUS!” I screamed as he was the only one who hadn’t gone through yet. He turned around and shared one last glance before he went through.

“LET ME GO! LET ME GO!” I was off the ground at this point, with Jonathon picking up from the ground and walking away from the gate.

“Beverly! Light it up!” Jonathon shouted through my protests.

“BEVERLY, DON’T! PLEASE, I NEED TO GO!” I tried to persuade her. She turned to me with shame and said sorry before turning the lighter on and throwing it into the kerosene.

“NO!” I screamed as the flames became more prominent. Jonathon finally dropped me, leaving me to curl up on the floor. Tears flooded down my face, as I pressed my hands to my face, trying to make them stop. It was supposed to be me, not him and everyone knew. They knew about this, that’s why they didn’t stop him. Maybe, that’s how he felt when I didn’t tell him about my visions. I couldn’t tell him.

I might never tell him.

The group walked up to me with remorse, some of them were crying too. But not as much as me.

“(Y/-“

“Don’t, Beverly.” I cut her off, weakly getting up and stumbled a bit as I did. Eddie came over to help me, but I snapped.

“Don’t fucking touch me.” I snarled, walking over to a random door and shutting behind me. I slid down the door, cradling my knees in my hands. I buried my face, letting more tears pour out.

(Richie’s POV)

I had to do it, I wasn’t letting her risk her life. Even though, it might be the last time I’m seeing (Y/N), I’m happy she’s alive. The upside down hadn’t changed a lot from the last time I saw it, but it definitely was colder.

“I can’t believe you did that.” Mike W breathed out.

“I had no choice.” I shrugged, clutching the crowbar in my hand.

“Yes, you did.” Mike W said, fiddling with the handgun.

“Wouldn’t you have done the same thing for El?” I countered, looking in his direction.

“Of course. Why do you think I’m here? Love makes you do crazy things.” He softly chuckled. I looked down, furrowing my eyebrows.

“What do you mean love?” I asked.

“You love (Y/N), don’t you?” Mike raised an eyebrow. Love was definitely a strong word, but did I? I mean, I care for her more than myself sometimes. Maybe, all the time for that matter. But, did I love her?

“I don’t-I don’t know.” I stammered, overthinking the question. Mike sighed, stopping both of us in our tracks.

“Look, maybe you can’t see it, but you love her. More than you think.” Mike rested his hands in my shoulders, looking me dead in the eye before walking off. I couldn’t move my legs, because I was just trying to process it.

Do I love (Y/N)?

 


	36. Final Battle

  
**(Richie’s POV)**

**WE HAD BEEN WALKING FOR AGES AND THERE HAD STILL BEEN NO SIGN OF IT**. We were in town at this point, close to the library. It wasn’t until we saw IT at the middle of the street, in clown form. Seeing the clown sent shivers down my spine, I didn’t realize the effect that sewer fight had on me until now. Hopper put his gun up in an armed position, same with Steve and his bat. El was right behind them, giving IT a death glare. Both Mike’s and I gave each other unsure looks, but we were ready.

“You finally came!” IT exclaimed, clapping ITs hands together. “I was worried you weren’t going to sh-“

El twitched her neck, breaking one of ITs legs and sending him to the ground. It didn’t faze IT at all though, and IT got back up. El twitched her neck again, breaking the other leg, but it still didn’t work. Then she went on a continuous loop, constantly twitching her neck, making IT frustrated.

“She’s trying to weaken IT.” Mike H’s eyes widened. I snapped my head towards him in confusion.

“What?” I asked him, furrowing my eyebrows.

“She’s-like shedding ITs skin.” He explained. “Getting IT to a point where IT is vulnerable-“

“So IT will go into ITs true form!” Mike W explained, finishing the other Mike’s sentence. Me, on the other hand, was confused as fuck.

“I have no fucking idea what you’re getting at here?” I rubbed my forehead.

“It’s like a video game, where you beat the villain to a point where they use their full power or-“ Mike W pointed to IT. “They’re truest point.”

“So, we need to beat it until it gets frustrated?” I rephrased. Both Mike’s looked at each other before nodding.

“Then say that.” I rolled my eyes and ran towards Hopper and Steve.

“Hopper shoot IT, continuously.” I instructed him.

“Why?”

“That’s how it’ll go to its final form.” Mike H said from behind me, catching up with Mike W by his side.

“I’m trusting you kid.” Hopper grumbled before opening fire and shooting IT down, while El started choking him with her mind.

“Mike, use the gun.” I pointed to the gun he was carrying.

“Oh right.” Mike W cocked the gun and shot IT multiple times. Through the gunfire I could see IT... changing. IT was changing different people’s fear.

The leper.

The lady in the painting.

Beverly’s father.

Georgie.

Burnt up hands.

A headless boy.

A werewolf. Why a werewolf?

And me.

My eyes widened as I saw a beat up, bloodied version of myself. Was someone afraid of me, or afraid of me looking like that? I snapped out of my thoughts when a different kind of leg replaced ITs. It was a spider leg, like what (Y/N) said.

“Mike! IT’s changing!” I nudged Mike H, as I pointed to IT with another spider leg popping out.

“It’s almost time for us to beat crap out of that thing!” Mike smiled, making me smile back. The wind grew more ferocious as IT changed, IT must been effecting the weather. A spider’s head split IT’s clown head in half as IT grew taller. ITs skin became more rough-looking and hairy.

“You know our lives are fucked up when we have to do this a second time.” I grimaced, looking at the grotesque sight in front of me.

“Tell me about it.” Mike H groaned. We looked to each other in confirmation, before running towards IT, screaming at the top of our lungs. Mike got the first hit, taking a swing at one of ITs legs, cracking it open. Steve came right behind us, aiming for ITs body portion and Mike W and Hopper were still shooting IT down. El started breaking the legs, making it easier for us to hit and completely break. All of a sudden, ITs leg kicked my stomach, sending me flying backwards a few feet.

“Kid, you okay?” Hopper shouted through the gunfire. I weakly held my thumbs up before grabbing my crowbar and getting up. I looked to the left of me and saw these dogs? They kind of looked like dogs, aside from the fact they looked slimy, had no hair, and flowers for heads. Ok, maybe they don’t look like dogs.

“Hopper!” I shouted, catching his attention. I pointed to the increasing number of animals approaching us. I ran over to him, knowing they weren’t friendly creatures.

“Jane!” He called out to his daughter. El turned around, pausing her actions and Hopper nodded towards the creatures.

“Can you handle a flame thrower?” He asked me. My eyes widened as he took the enormous gun from his duffel bag.

“You know what? Take the gun instead.” He handed me the gun he was using and told El to follow him. I stayed next to Mike W, who was refilling his bullets and I was trying to figure out how this gun worked. It took a few tries, but I eventually got it down, aiming as far away from Mike H and Steve as possible so I wouldn’t shoot them.

“We need to get closer!” I shouted to Mike next to me. He nodded and we walked closer to the giant spider. I knew it wasn’t the time, but I couldn’t help but wonder how badass I looked with this gun.

“Richie!” Steve shouted out to me, snapping me out of thoughts. “I opened a wound here! Give me the gun!” I ran toward him, dodging the spider legs swinging at me in different directions and handed him the gun as he handed me his bat.

“You swing, I shoot.” He instructed. I nodded and began swinging the bat into the really disgusting open wound. I heard Mike H call the other Mike for help, as he was under a spider leg that was almost about to stab him. That is, until Mike W got a good shot on ITs leg, making IT screech in more pain. Steve and I made it into ITs core that had a bloody organ inside it.

“Well, don’t just stand there.” I told him, making him snap out of it and shot the organ. IT let out one more screech of pain, before collapsing on the ground and going limp. All four of us backed away from the fallen creature.

“Is it dead?” I asked them. Then all of a sudden the creature exploded sending body parts flying and one hitting me in the face, cutting my cheek and gashing my arm. I hissed in pain in the ground as my vision started to fade. The last thing I saw was El putting her hand down, facing the now dead creature and the last thing I felt was me being picked up.

Then everything went black.


	37. Why Do You Care?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy shit, this story is almost ending! There’s only like two chapters left. Thanks for all the kudos, comments and reads. I thought this story was going to breeze past all the other wonderful stories this website had. :)

**(Y/N) POV**

**I HAD FORGIVEN THE GROUP FOR NOT TELLING ME ABOUT RICHIE, BUT I DIDN’T TELL** them directly because I never left the room. I just wanted to be alone with my thoughts, but at the same time I wanted someone to talk to. Someone to tell me he’s coming back, that all of them are coming back.

_Knock Knock!_

I snapped my head up from the chair I was sitting in and looked towards the door. I was contemplating whether or not I should open the door, since I knew someone wanted to talk to me, but I didn’t know if I wanted to hear it or not.

_Knock knock!_

I pursed my lips together and decided to get up and open the door. My fingers lingered on the door knob as I slowly rotated it, causing a clicking sound and revealing Bev on the other side. I could tell she had been crying because of the dry tear tracks left on her freckled cheeks.

“(Y/N), I’m so sorry. Richie just wanted to protect you and I felt really bad about not telling him about the whole vision thing. Then I forgot about how heartbroken you’d feel about him replacing you and I’m still beating myself up for it. I never meant to hurt you, it’s just you’ve been through so much and then you were risking your life again and-“ Tears flew down both of our eyes as she continued to talk. I felt a pang of guilt for making her feel this way. I didn’t see those visions because I wanted to, I did it to help everyone else, it’s very rare when I actually start thinking about myself in these situations, but I didn’t think of the repercussions it would have on everyone else. Bev was still rambling on about how sorry she was, so I cut her off by hugging her tightly. She actually stopped talking and hugging me back, getting us both to burst into tears.

“I’m sorry for shutting you out.” I whispered into her shoulder.

“I’m sorry for shutting you in.” She whispered back, letting a small chuckle escape from her mouth. We broke apart and I went back to my chair, letting Bev follow behind me. I slumped into it, letting my head fall back and taking a deep breath.

“I feel like a mom.” I blurted out. “I’m just sitting here, worrying about them coming back and not doing anything about it.”

“At this point, you should be sitting back. The amount of things you’ve done to help this situation is baffling. You deserve a break.” Bev laid a hand on my shoulder with a remorse smile, but only getting a weak smile from me.

“I’ll never get a break.” I scoffed, taking her hand of my shoulder and placing it in my own hand.

“After this, after they come back. We should do something together.” Bev suggested.

“Like what?” I blinked.

“Get ice cream, or go to the arcade, or go to the park. Anything like that.” She shrugged. I smiled to myself, happy I had someone like her to have as a best friend. It was something I liked growing use to.

“I’d like to do that.” I nodded, giving her another hug. Another knock was heard at the door, alerting both of us and making me get up to open the door. Stan was on the other side with a relieved smile on his face.

“They’re back.” He breathed out, making my eyes widen and run past him. I heard him chuckle behind me as Bev and Stan followed me back to the control room. I saw El with her stuck out, closing the gate as she came out of the elevator, but behind her was a sight that I didn’t want to see.

“Richie?” I softly spoke as I saw him knocked out with a huge cut on his arm and a smaller one on his cheek.

“Eddie! We need medical attention!” Mike H shouted, alerting the small boy to help him carry Richie and take him to a hospital room. I went to El and Mike W who were holding each other, walking towards the group together.

“What happened?” I asked them as Mike set down El on a chair. Her veins were prominent on her face and there was blood dripping from her nose and ears.

“We killed IT.” Mike stated. It felt like all my burdens were lifted off my shoulders. IT... was finally dead, it couldn’t cause us anymore trouble and without IT, the mind flayer wouldn’t be able to function properly. I closed my eyes, letting out a deep sigh and smiling wildly. Then my worries came back up as I thought Richie’s state.

“What happened to Richie?” I asked, crossing my arms.

“El exploded IT, so there were no surprises, but one of the legs hit him, knocking him out.” He explained. I pursed my lips together, using a tighter grip on my crossed arms.

“Thanks Mike, El.” I smiled and ran towards the room they took Richie in. For some reason, I was so mad at him, but it was a weird kind of mad. I was mad at him for caring too much, for trying to protect me. Why did he care so much? What’s so special about me? I pushed the thoughts out of my head as I walked into the door and saw Eddie and Mike H, running around frantically and trying to look for supplies.

“I’m helping you.” I stated, closing the door behind me and walking towards a panicking Eddie.

“Oh! Good good, yes that good. Can you find me some-“ Before he finished I threw him a pack of paper towels.

“We were looking for those for five minutes.” Mike H furrowed his eyebrows.

“Sometimes they’re hiding in plain sight.” I shrugged.

***

(General POV)

Richie’s eyes slowly opened as they adjusted to the light. He was trying to contemplate if he was in heaven or not. It wasn’t until he noticed he was in a hospital room, that he shook the stupid idea out of his head. The boy weakly turned his head and saw a girl, because it looked like a girl but his vision was still pretty blurry. She was watering something, like a cloth or a paper towel and she turned around. Richie’s eyes came more into focus as he realized it wasn’t just some girl.

It was his girl.

“(Y/N).” He groggily whispered, alerting the girl’s attention. Weirdly she had a strict look on her face, walking over to him and applying the wet cloth in his face. Richie winced in pain as (Y/N) was washing over the cut on his face.

“Sorry.” She muttered, but it wasn’t soft, it was harsh. Richie was confused as to why she was acting this way. He saved her life, didn’t he? Richie took her hand, stopping her from wiping the cut and looked her in the eye.

“(Y/N).” He whispered. The girl was purposely avoiding contact, looking at the ground, walls, ceiling, door, everywhere but him. She just didn’t want to look at him, because as crazy as it sounds, she didn’t want him to care. She wanted to be protecting everyone else, not having someone risking their life to protect someone like her. She didn’t think she was worth saving. Richie sighed, trying to sit up from the bed so he could get a better look. (Y/N) immediately protested, telling him to lay down.

“Richie, I swear to God, lay down in the bed.” She warned.

“Not until you tell me what’s wrong.” He groaned, from the pain sitting up was giving him.

“Richie, lay down, this is hurting you,” she said with no emotion.

“I don’t care.” Richie shook his head, before fully sitting up on the small bed. “Now look at me.” (Y/N) looked down instead of at him, sighing as she didn’t want to face him. The boy grew frustrated and brought his hand to her chin, lifting her head up to face him.

“What’s wrong?” He asked softly.

“Why do you care?”

“Huh?”

“Why the fuck do you care about me so much? What’s so great about me?” She furrowed her eyebrows, letting her voice crack as she asked the question.

“Because your my girlfriend.” He stated matter-of-factly.

“No, this is more than that. You risked your life for me. Why?” Her voice grew a little more mad.

“Because I wanted to protect you.” Richie scooted closer to the edge of the bed to be more near her, but she tore away from the bed pacing around frantically.

“Why though!? There’s nothing special about me! That’s why I protect others, I didn’t ask for your help.” Her voice grew louder.

“(Y/N), stop.” Richie spoke softly.

“No! I won’t stop! Why do you care, give me a reason, a real reason?” She walked up to him, making their faces inches apart from each other.

“(Y/N).”

“Why do you care?”

“(Y/N).”

“I need a reason Richie!”

“(Y/N) seriously.”

“NO! I NEED A REASON!”

“(Y/N)!”

“WHY DO YOU CARE?!”

“BECAUSE I LOVE YOU!” Richie shouted out loud. (Y/N) took a step back, trying to process what he said. The words just kept replaying in her head.

_He loves her._

“That’s definitely a strong word.” She muttered to herself.

“That’s why I used it.” Richie said, getting up from the bed, ignoring all the pain coming from his body.

“Richie, get back in th-mmph.” (Y/N) was cut off when Richie smashed his lips into hers. The both of them didn’t know how much they loved the feeling until then. (Y/N) didn’t take long to melt into it, wrapping her arms around his neck. They broke apart after eight seconds, taking a short breath. Richie rested his forehead on hers, happy to see her smiling for the first time in a long time.

“You love me?” (Y/N) breathlessly chuckled.

“I love you.” He repeated. “And I know it’s too early for you to say it, but I have loved you since the day I met you.” He smiled, placing a kiss on her forehead.

“Awwww.” Richie and (Y/N) snapped their heads towards the closed door, wondering where the sound came from.

“S-S-Shut up Eddie, they could hear us.” Another harsh whisper was heard.

“This is Christmas all over again.” A different voice spoke up.

“What happened during Christmas?”

(Y/N) opened the door before the could answer the question, having a really irritated look on her face. The door revealed Bill, Eddie, Stan, Mike H, Bev, Will, Dustin and Lucas.

“What’s up?” Bev asked nonchalantly.

“Are you guys fucking serious? Did you think we were having sex in there?” Richie crossed his arms, leaning against (Y/N) for support.

“No, why would I want to hear the sound of you two smashing each other?” Eddie raised an eyebrow.

“Anyway!” (Y/N) cut in, being rather uncomfortable. “I think we can go home now.”

“Yea, that actually what we came her to tell you.” Lucas smiled awkwardly.

“Really?” Richie tilted his head in confusion and frustration. The group nodded, trying to put on innocent smiles in their face which the couple groaned in response to.

“C’mon love, let’s go.” Richie threw his arm around (Y/N) for walking support and limped passed the group.

“Fucking weirdos.” (Y/N) muttered, chuckling softly.


	38. The Losers Go Back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Final chapter, before the epilogue.

***A Few Days Later***

**(Y/N) POV**

**“DON’T FORGET TO CALL. EVERYDAY, OK?” RICHIE TOLD ME FOR LIKE THE** tenth time, while putting the last of his clothes in his suitcase. It was the last day the losers would be here, and saying it was an emotional last few days is an understatement. Everyone was so close with each other at this moment and saying goodbye wasn’t easy to do.

“Richie, I have your number attached to the wall on top of the phone. It’ll be hard for me to forget.” I sighed, chuckling softly and helping him zip the suitcase closed.

“Just making sure. And don’t call me to break up with me again, I swear I’ll be on the next bus here if you do.” He warned pointing at my forehead, making me rock back a little.

“For the last time, I had no choice.” I put my arms up in defence, smiling. Richie patted the suitcase before setting it down in the floor.

“I’m all packed then.” He sighed, pretending to wipe fake sweat off his forehead. “What time is it?” I glanced over to the clock and it read-

“8:00pm, I’m pretty sure everyone is sleeping right now.” I dug my hands in my pockets.

“I could use sleep.” Right in cue, he yawned, stretching out his arms in different directions. He then has a moment of silence, like he was thinking about something. “Want to sleep together?”

“You’re disgusting.” I rolled my eyes walking upstairs into me and Bev’s room. I heard footsteps grudge behind me as Richie went passed me and blocked my path.

“The fact you think I meant it like that makes you disgusting.” Richie raised an eyebrow, smirking. “I meant just in the same bed.” I lingered on the question before nodding and having him follow me upstairs.

“Just be quiet, Bev is sleeping.” I warned, as I carefully opened the door so no creaks were heard. I motioned for Richie to follow me as we tip toed across the room. I slid into bed first, raising the blanket and letting Richie follow in second. Once we were in the clear, I snuggled into the bed as Richie slid his arms around my waist, pulling me closer. He buried his head into my shoulder, moving his head softly to get into a comfortable position.

“Good night, Rich.” I whispered as I closed my eyes.

“I love you (Y/N).”

***

I groggily tapped my lips as my eyes came into focus, letting the morning sun shine in my direction. I furrowed my eyebrows when a few figures hovered my bed.

“On three, guys,” one of them said. I rubbed my eyes, causing my sight to become more clear, revealing the losers while Bev held a cupcake with a candle sticking on top of it.

“1,2,3-“ Suddenly, the melodic tune of happy birthday filled my ears, sounding kind of off key, but I didn’t mind. What I did mind was the fact that I hated my birthday, since it only reminds me I’m one year closer to death. Part of me wanted to cover my head with my pillow to stop them from singing, but I think that would be a little to mean so I let them keep singing.

“Happy birthday.” Bev smiled, after they had finished the song. “Make a wish, seriously, this took a long time to make.” She said, gesturing the dessert in her hands. I sighed, as they waited for my response to this and eventually made decision to blow the candle, wishing for just one thing.

For things to be peaceful.

That’s all I wanted, just a regular life as a teenager where there were no alternate dimensions, child-eating clowns, kidnaped children, abusive relatives, psychotic bullies, I wanted none of it. Just peace.

“What did you wish for?” Mike H asked. I looked to him with a smirk growing on my lips.

“Well, I can’t tell you that, or else it won’t come true.” I said, taking the cupcake, throwing away the candle and taking a bite out of the icing only, making Eddie grimace.

“Who only eats the icing?” He asked. I looked at him with a blank face, taking another bite of the icing, along with a little bit of the cake.

“Me,” I smiled.

“We couldn’t get you any presents, so-“

“I don’t want presents, I didn’t even want this.” I cut Ben off, pursing my lips together.

“That’s why we did this before y-y-you woke up.” Bill explained.

“Good thinking.” I nodded with a smile prominent on my lips. I ripped off my blanket from my body, letting the cool air hit my chest and below as I sat in an upright position on the edge of my bed. “So this is the last day for you guys here, huh?” I sighed, drifting off at the window as the breeze softly blew the silk curtains. The silence from the group gave me the confirmation I needed, making me turn towards them to see their disappointed faces.

“I’m going to miss you guys too.” My voice cracked, making eyes grow hot.

“You aren’t getting like this, not today (Y/N). It’s your birthday.” Richie came up to me, engulfing me in a side hug.

“It’s also the day you’re leaving.” I sniffed, wiping my nose after scrunching it up.

“Don’t think about it like that, we’re going to visit each other after this, hopefully for a different reason though.” He muttered the last part, making me chuckle. “Plus, you have the party and I approve of them being your friends.”

“Wow, Thanks.” I playfully rolled my eyes, making them glance to the clock. The one ounce of happiness I had disappeared when I realized the group had about an hour until the next bus. “Guys,” I nodded over to it.

“Shit,” Bev sighed.

***

“This is the second fucking time this has happened.” Stan said, loading his suitcase in the bus.

“Third, if you count when we came here.” Eddie countered.

“Let’s just hope the next time we visit, it’s just because we want to see you.” I chuckled, throwing my arms around Eddie and giving him a hug. “Stay safe,” I mumbled.

“No promises.” He replied, breaking the hug and letting a few tears slip out. “Fucking hell, why do I always cry?”

“Because you’re a softie.” Mike smiled, helping Bill with his things. Bill himself was having a small conversation with Bev, but I let them be private because it was probably between them.

“All of you are softies, but I’m not.” Richie boasted, making me roll my eyes.

“I heard you crying to yourself, before (Y/N) woke up, Richie.” Ben cut in, crossing his arms.

“Damnit.” I heard Richie mutter, causing me to laugh out loud and give Ben a high five which he gladly accepted.

“I think that’s everything.” Stan sighed, taking one last glance at the suitcases. Bev and Bill finally came back to us and we all shared one last look with each other.

“So this is it, huh?” I asked, looking around. “I’m going to miss you losers.” I smiled, motioning for us to have a group hug and we all joined in with our arms wrapped around each other. It was kind of sad that one of our only happy moments like this was on before they had to leave and I don’t know when we’ll see them again.

The bus honked, breaking up our group hug and the boys boarded the bus, waving goodbye. The doors closed and the bus drove off. Me and Bev turned to walk away, before I heard-

“(Y/N)!” I snapped my head around and saw Richie running up to me as I furrowed my eyebrows in confustion. Before I knew what was happening, I was off the ground, in Richie’s arms with my lips pressed to his. _It’s the same thing I did to him_. I thought to myself. After five seconds, he put me down and broke the kiss, smiling and running back to the bus.

“Bye! Happy birthday!” He shouted as the doors closed. I was so flustered, I just waved and tried to speak but no words came out. So, I just smiled awkwardly and watched the bus drive away.

“You okay?” Bev asked, smirking at the fact I was so awestruck.

“Yeah, I think so.” I spoke slowly, spinning around.

“Wanna go get that ice cream?”

“Yes, yes I do.” I smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter bois. :(


	39. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The final chapter in the Fearless series.

***3**   **years later***

**(Y/N) POV**

**“I’M NOT GOING!” I SHOUTED, PULLING MY BLANKET OVER MY HEAD TO AVOID** contact with Bev. She attempted to rip the grip I had on it, but I kept it firm.

“But prom will be fun.” She sighed, giving up on pulling out of the covers. I groaned and rolled my eyes inside the blanket, knowing prom would be anything but fun. Prom is somewhere you go with a date, and the person I wanted to go with wasn’t even in this town, he was back in Derry.

“Even if I wanted to go, I don’t have a dress.” I finally revealed my face, making the small strands of my hair stick out. My hair was actually pretty short now, it went just above my shoulders. It was much better than the hassle I had before. As for Bev, she cut her hair even shorter, not letting any hair hang down. (Basically what Sophia looked like during the press tours.)

“We’ll go after school with El and Max.” Bev countered.

“I don’t have a date.” I gave another excuse, trying to come up with literally anything to keep me from going. I was even willing to say I had AIDS so I wouldn’t go.

“Neither do I.” Bev shrugged, making me groan and slam the back of my head on my pillow. “Stop with excuses, prom is in two days and you’re going. Now get ready for school.” She instructed.

“Fine, Mom.” I muttered, but apparently I was a little too loud because she threw a pillow to my head.

“Fuck off,” she chuckled softly.

***

Bev, Max, El, Dustin, Will, Lucas and I sat in the cafeteria, talking about different things though the main topic was prom. I tuned them out and picked at my tator tots, rolling them with my plastic fork. It’s not like I hated prom, it’s just I can’t go with that one person I really wanted to and doing anything else doesn’t feel right.

I snapped out of my empty thoughts as I glanced towards the door with Mike standing there, holding a bouquet of flowers and muttering to himself nervously. He finally walked up to our table, standing specifically in front of El. My eyes widened as I realized what he was going to do, and I smiled softly, waiting for him to pop the question.

“Hey uh-El?” He caught the girl’s attention, making her head turn up towards Mike.

“Hey-“ she trailed off when she noticed the flowers and Mike’s nervous expression. “Mike?”

“I’m just going to come right out and say it.” He blew out a breath. El’s breathing sped up a little as she realized what was happening, letting her long wavy hair bounce on her hair as Bev and Max gripped her shoulders in anticipation. At this point, I noticed a few people staring in their direction. My smile became weak as I had this little feeling that I want to be El. Not because I wanted Mike to ask me, but because I wanted to be asked and not just by any random person, a certain person.

“El, will you go to prom with me?” Mike choked out, looking like he was about to pass out. El opened her mouth, but no words came out, probably she was trying to process what was happening to her. I chuckled softly as I saw her flustered face and gave her a small pat on the back, making her choke out the words-

“Yes, I would love to.” She spoke fast, causing most of the cafeteria to clap collectively with some ‘aww’s sprinkled in it. El reached over the table, taking the flowers and giving Mike a small peck on the lips.

“You should’ve given her chocolate too.” Max added, fiddling with El’s flowers.

“I wasn’t going to copy Lucas.” Mike shrugged, taking El’s hand.

“I would’ve killed you if you did.” Lucas pointed at Mike, giving him a playful glare.

“Hey, El, Will, do you think I could babysit Bob?” I asked nonchalantly. Maybe I could get out of going to Prom by taking care of Will and El’s younger brother.

“Nope, (Y/N), you’re going to prom. My mom and Dad are taking care of him.” El replied, referring to Hopper and Joyce. I rolled my eyes, slumping back into my chair.

“We’re going shopping after school today too, so you aren’t backing out of anything.” Max added.

“Fuck me,” I muttered.

***

“How about this?” El asked, holding up a bright pink dress. I grimaced at the sight of it, lowering it down from my sight.

“Am I going to prom or space?” I raised an eyebrow. El gave me an unimpressed look, putting the clothing back in the rack and searching a different one.

“(Y/N), you can’t keep rejecting every dress.” Max walked up to me, holding a pile of different dresses.

“Okay, but that dress was hideous.” I shrugged and walked past her and waited in front of a change room stall where Bev was changing. She finally came out in a really nice dress, that fitted her perfectly.

“That looks really good.” I pursed my lips together, nodding in approval.

“You really think so?” She raised her eyebrows, seemingly genuinely unsure if she looked good.

“Bev, you look hot.” I reassured her, placing hands on her shoulders, making her chuckle.

“I’ve picked mine.” Max called out from behind us, letting El follow from behind her.

“So have I.” El added.

“Which ones?” I asked. Max and El each pulled a dress from the pile and held it up.

Bev and I looked at them in approval, happy with the decision. Now, all I wanted to do was go home an-

“Pick one, (Y/N).” Max gave me a glare.

Shit.

“I won’t be able to find one.” I threw my hands up in defeat.

“You’re not even trying.” Bev said, going back inside the change room to revert back to her normal clothes.

“Oh, I’m trying and I can’t find anyth-“ I stopped myself when I turned around and saw something I dreaded. I wanted to tear my eyes away from it as soon as I saw, but it was too late.

I saw a perfect dress.

“That’s the one.” El whispered in my ear, placing her hand on my shoulder and using it to jump up and done. I hated it so much because what she said was true.

That is the one.

***

The gym was dark with spotlights emanating it. Streamers were hanging from her wall with balloons connecting each of them, it kind of made me uneasy but at least they weren’t red balloons. The words ‘Prom’ were painted on a banner hanging near the entrance, while tables filled the outside of the gym area. In the middle was the dance floor where a bunch of teenagers were jumping up and down to the blasting sounds of ‘U Can’t Touch This’ by MC Hammer.

I obviously sat at the table, along with Bev, Will, Max, El and Mike. Dustin and Lucas were actually on the dance floor, looking they were really into the song.

“I can’t believe I’m dating him.” Max squinted her eyes, probably trying to see if that was actually Lucas up there. The rest of the group chuckled as I took a bite of the snack on the table.

The song finally ended, making the audience clap and stare at the DJ. I glanced over the clock and saw that it was only one hour into the dance which meant I had three hours to go.

“Alright, teens, we are going to take things slow with a small blast from the past.” The DJ announced, and played with the records before a tune I knew all to well started playing.

Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Time After Time.’

I felt my heart stop and twist as the incoming beats came in and all forgotten memories flushed into my mind. All those past experiences I wanted to forget found a way to taunt me, no matter how much I wanted to forget it.

Maybe, I shouldn’t think of this song like it’s a PTSD song and more of just a song. I wasn’t being physically harmed by this song so I was fine. The only thing it reminded me of now was...

Him.

“Wanna dance?” Mike asked El, sticking his hand out. I glanced over to El who was smiling wildly.

“I thought you’d never ask.” She smiled, making it kind of feel like she was quoting a soap opera or something. They walked over to the dance floor, hand in hand before Mike wrapped his hands around El’s waist and she wrapped her arms around his neck.

“Max? May I have this dance?” Lucas smirked, slightly bowing and sticking his hand out.

“Will you dance the same way you did before?” She raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms and leaning back in her seat.

“Of course not.” He playfully rolled his eyes, making Max chuckle and take his hand. They went next to El and Mike, doing the same actions as them.

“Hey Dustin?” A blonde-haired girl walked up to our table, looking a little nervous. I think I recognized her from my biology class, but I wasn’t to sure.

“Oh-uh, hey Bethany.” Dustin smiled, looking pretty flustered.

“Wanna dance with me?” She shrugged, biting her lip and revealing the braces she had on teeth. Dustin stammered, glancing between the girl and us. We discreetly told him to go and he finally accepted and went to the dance floor. At this point, it was just me, Will and Bev.

“Well, I don’t think threesomes are allowed in this dance so...” I joked, making the other two grimace but chuckle.

“We aren’t leaving you here.” Will shook his head, folding his hands in the table. Bev, on the other hand was looking towards the entrance with a shocked face, before turning back to us with a  straight one.

“Actually, Will, lets go.” She scooted out of her chair, yanking Will off his too.

“Wait what?” He questioned, but before he received an answer he was already on the dance floor. I furrowed my eyebrows, but shrugged it off quickly, glancing between the couples and resting my head on my hand which was on the table. As much as I’d love to dance, I didn’t feel like it so I was just stuck watching, looking really pathetic. You know that feeling when you have everything you need, but there’s that one thing you’re missing and without it, nothing feels right. That’s me right now, and the problem is I can’t fix-

“I didn’t take you for a person who went to proms.” A voice spoke from behind me. I knew that voice, it was the most familiar voice I’ve ever heard with the only difference being the fact that it was deeper than when I heard it. Every bone in my body was forcing me to turn around, but my mind was telling me that this might a trap and it’s just my imagination.

“The ride here was really long, love. I deserve some appreciation.” The voice said again and that’s when I knew it wasn’t real. He called me love.

_His nickname for me was love._

“Richie?” I spoke softly, turning around slowly and meeting his chocolate-brown eyes. I noticed how tall he had gotten, which was half a head tall then me. His hair was curled, almost covering his face, but he still had the same broken fucking glasses.

“(Y/N).” He smirked, pulling me for hug. I immediately hugged back, taking in his warm embrace and then I realized that he was one of my safe places as I felt this longing embrace. I missed it.

“I can’t believe you’ve gotten prettier.” He caressed my cheek, placing a kiss on my forehead.

“Shut up, trashmouth.” I chuckled softly, snuggling into his neck.

“Glad to know you’re personality hasn’t changed then.” I could feel him smiling. “How about we ditch this and go out to the field? You can still here the music there.” He suggested.

“Yeah, definitely.” I nodded.

***

The grass was damp from yesterday, since it had rain and there were reports it would rain again, but I didn’t care. I just wanted to be Richie, nothing more.

The sound of the song was faint, but it was clear enough to hear the lyrics.

“Fuck school dances!” Richie shouted, sticking up both middle fingers at the school, making me chuckle.

“Fuck them hard!” I shouted, doing the same as him and running around in little circles.

“FUCK PROM!” He shouted once again, this time tilting his head back. I ran up to him, jumping on his back and wrapping my arms around his neck.

“You really are a trashmouth.” I smirked.

“So are you.” He turned his head to face mine. Soon I felt a raindrop hit my face, as it slowly absorbed into my skin and more started fall from the sky, letting us know it was staring to rain.

“Do you wanna go inside, or...” I asked, making Richie turned to look at me in disbelief.

“Hell no.” He scoffed, taking me off his back and then sticking his hand out. “Shall we?” He said in a horrible British accent.

“We shall.” I said, using the same accent and taking his hand. We got into the same positions as the small dance in the cabin three years ago. It was the only way I liked to dance, I had refused to dance any other way after that and only Richie knew why. Everything just lead back to him, even when he had nothing to do with it. When he wasn’t in my mind, he still was. When I was talking to the losers, I still felt like I was talking to him. When I was having bad day, just thinking of one of his features brightened my day. And that’s when I finally realized it.

“I love you, Richie.” I whispered, softly chucking and quickly noticing I said it out loud.

“Took ya long enough, asshole.” He smirked, leaning in until our lips met. I felt a rush of butterflies travel from the head to my toes as I rested my hands on his shoulders and his find their way around my waist. That’s when the rain started to pour more harder, but we didn’t give two fucks because he pulled me in closer deepening the kiss, my dress eventually sticking the my body and my hair was matted down on the sides of neck.

It was a somber moment, something I’ve been wanting for a long time. Looks like my wish on my fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth birthday came true. After all this it never changed and it’s been just one word that kept replaying in my head, but I finally got it. I got it with the losers, the party, Aunt Becky, Jonathan, Nancy, Steve, Hopper, Joyce and most importantly Richie.

I got peace.

THE END.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for following the journey of these characters throughout both stories with your kudos, comments, and hits. I’m actually so sad now, because I loved writing this story and this chapter, weirdly, was my favourite chapter to write. Of course, I’m going to write more stories, most likely one shot books, until I can come up with another full story. So, goodbye for now lovely readers!!!! (I’m about to cry, no jk, I’m not that emotional.)


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